Sputnik/Alexander... Read moreJuly 4 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted an eight-year-old girl in the Kremlin on Tuesday and got her to join him in a bizarre phone call to his finance minister to ask for a budget grant for her home region. The Kremlin released video of Putin welcoming the girl, Raisat Akipova, in the latest of a series of appearances since a brief armed mutiny last month that seem designed to show him as caring, concerned and in control. Putin responded, before telling the girl: "We've got 5 billion roubles for Dagestan" - a sum equivalent to $55.6 million. Putin chuckled with amusement during the conversation and a similar call that he made with Raisat to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The visit was a sequel to a visit by Putin to Dagestan last week when, unusually, he mingled with a large crowd of people.

---

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Raisat Akipova, Alexander, Read, Putin, Anton Siluanov, We've, Raisat, Mikhail Mishustin, Siluanov, Wagner, Mark Trevelyan, Gareth Jones Organizations: Kremlin, Sputnik, Finance, Thomson Locations: Derbent, Republic of Dagestan, Moscow, Russia, Kremlin, Dagestan