MOSCOW — Did Vladimir Putin's flight with a flock of cranes end up grounding him? The Russian president's spokesman says no.

In recent weeks, Putin has rarely left his official residence, sparking speculation that illness or injury had laid him low.

On Thursday, the respected newspaper Vedomosti cited unnamed Kremlin-connected sources saying Putin's September flight in a motorized hang-glider accompany migrating cranes had aggravated an old back injury.

But his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, while acknowledging Putin had a strained back, told the state news agency RIA Novosti that the highly publicized flight had nothing to do with Putin being a homebody.

Peskov was quoted as saying Putin was making only infrequent trips to the Kremlin because he didn't want his motorcade to disrupt Moscow's notoriously bad traffic.