The mystery over the whereabouts of Vladimir Putin deepened yesterday as Russian state media broadcast – then retracted – reports that he had hosted an official visit from the President of Kyrgyzstan.

Putin has remained hidden from public view for nine days. Levels of fear and uncertainty in Moscow have been rising as rumours fly over what could be behind Putin's lengthy disappearance.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that there is anything amiss with the Russian leader, batting away suggestions that he is ill, dead, victim of a palace coup or in Switzerland to be by his girlfriend's side as she gives   birth.

Putin's next public appearance is scheduled for Monday, when he is due to meet Almazbek Atambayev, the President of Kyrgyzstan, in Saint Petersburg.

But that encounter was thrown into confusion on Friday night as announcers on state television, apparently reading from an incorrect script, described the meeting in the past tense.

Rossiya 24, the channel involved, later described the incident as a “mistake”, but the blunder deepened suspicions that state media is covering up for Putin's unexplained absence.

On Friday, ostensibly new footage of Putin meeting a senior Russian judge at his residence was shown on state television but failed to quell the speculation. Such clips are often recorded in advance, and released when the authorities give the go-ahead. Meanwhile, Swiss media reported that Alina Kabaeva, a gymnast turned parliamentarian who is allegedly Putin's girlfriend, had flown to Lugano, Switzerland to give birth to a baby girl at the private clinic of Santa'Anna di Sorengo.

But the Swiss reports diverged on when the former gymnast had given birth.

Gymnast turned politician Alina Kabaeva is reputedly in a relationship with Putin

A tabloid, Bilk, claimed that Putin was present when his 32-year-old alleged lover gave birth to the baby, purportedly explaining his public absence. Other local reports said that the Russian leader had reserved two rooms at the clinic, one for his girlfriend and the other for her bodyguards, and had himself stayed with friends nearby.