Where’s Labubu? Peek into Putin’s hotel reveals colourful China welcome

Newly published video offers a rare glimpse into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stay in China last week, after a Russian state media journalist posted the footage to his Telegram channel.

Contrary to the president’s public image as a tough guy, the Russian leader’s residence in China was decorated with colourful Chinese figurines.

Footage posted by Pavel Zarubin on Monday showed dolls dressed in Chinese opera costumes, Chinese dancing lion statues and panda figurines in the style of Russian nesting dolls.

Putin was in China for four days last week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and China’s military parade in Beijing to mark the end of World War II, a trip the Kremlin had earlier called “completely unprecedented”.

There has been speculation that Putin brought his granddaughter, who is reported to speak fluent Mandarin, along on the trip, although there is no photo or video footage showing that the Russian leader was accompanied by a grandchild.

Xi Jinping hails ‘lasting friendship’ in talks with Putin

Xi Jinping hails ‘lasting friendship’ in talks with Putin

The footage also showed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asking about the wildly popular Chinese plush toy, Labubu, after Russian Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut picked up and closely looked at one of the dolls as officials were visiting Putin’s room.