Putin the Action Man
David Blackburn 3:55pm
I thought Harriet Harman’s posturing could not be bettered, but Vladimir Putin’s annual Alexander Nevsky tribute act takes the biscuit. Each year he varies his macho stock in trade of hunting, shooting and fishing in the buff. Last year he invaded Georgia. And this year he played 20,000 leagues under the sea’s Captain Nemo, by manning a midget submarine and diving to the bottom of the world’s deepest lake. That it was a stunt is in no doubt: he gave some luckless Russian journalists a running commentary throughout his two hour descent into darkness. For those looking for an arresting image, the Telegraph’s report has this photograph:
Doesn’t he look petrified?
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Sally Chatterjee
August 5th, 2009 4:05pm Report this commentEach to his own. Brown's had the No. 10 PR machine spin in advance some planned "community work", Putin prefers more macho activities but they seem more genuine, you need a degree of fitness to rampage barechested on horseback. I suspect Brown will wear button-down collars on holiday.
Don
August 5th, 2009 4:08pm Report this commentThe Telegraph photos look like a photo shoot for a gay calender.
Jeremy
August 5th, 2009 4:11pm Report this commentPhwor!
What a lovely pair of man-breasts.
'ello, it's Marine Boy...*waves*...looks a bit melancholy, doesn't he? And a bit slavic? I mean, for a prototype Japanese anime character from the nineteen-sixties. Do you think we could change that?
Charles Flaccidwidger
August 5th, 2009 4:12pm Report this commentThis is the dickhead who shot an Amur tiger last year to prove his image as a hard man. Amur tigers are on the brink of extinction and this little prat thought it worthwhile to shoot one. Nice one, Vlad, well worth it.
Tiberius
August 5th, 2009 4:13pm Report this commentI think he's been taking those re-runs of Doyle and Bodie far too seriously.
Frank
August 5th, 2009 4:18pm Report this commentHow deep did the midget sub need to dive for the photo?
Andrew
August 5th, 2009 4:32pm Report this commentAs I recall, the one thing Action Man lacks is, in fact, erm...well...
tilly williams
August 5th, 2009 4:38pm Report this commentPutin is not very tall and he looks puny to me the watery blue eyes and all that for him to be doing this it seems to me that he is try to prove himself and others that he is macho a real man doe not have to prove that maybe he is a closet gay
Pete Hoskin
August 5th, 2009 4:43pm Report this commentAndrew: speaking of which...
http://tinyurl.com/mdatcn
(via the good folk at Comment Central)
Malcolm
August 5th, 2009 4:44pm Report this commentSomeone buy this man some clothes please?
Thank goodness McBust never removes so much as his jacket!
Laughing Larry
August 5th, 2009 5:15pm Report this commentHe is so hunky. A real gay icon. No doubt, once he dies all the homosexual scandals will leak from the Kremlin.
Austin Barry
August 5th, 2009 5:31pm Report this commentThe Freudian symbolism of the top picture is obvious and suggests some deficiency in the plumbing department. Less obvious is the second picture which seems to suggest some form of hiding and fear of discovery. Overall, I suspect he may be a repressed follower of Judy and living a life of dissimulation. The West crosses this man at its peril. He will always want to validate himself through winning any micturation contest.
saddleworth
August 5th, 2009 6:08pm Report this commentHe really is beginning to remind me far too much of Mussolini - macho posing - lunatic foreign policies - bullying smaller countries - one party state. Someone let me know if he gets too friendly with a pasty faced creep with a toothbrush moustache.
J. D. Renwick
August 5th, 2009 6:16pm Report this commentPutin is probably distancing himself from the declining years of the Soviet Union, when it was led by one senile leader, Brezhnev, followed by one terminally ill who could in the end only work from a specially adapted chair, Andropov.
JDR
logdon
August 5th, 2009 8:52pm Report this commentIs that a gun in your hand, Vlad, or are you just pleased to see that photographer?
Ray
August 5th, 2009 9:03pm Report this commentI bet he was bitten to pieces by gnats posing for those shots. I once stripped to my waist whilst putting up a tent in the woods and the following morning my torso looked like it had been machine-gunned.
JohnAnt
August 5th, 2009 9:46pm Report this commentThis is all so hilarious. Putin shooting grizzlies, Mandy on easyJet, Gordon on Community Service. Don't tell me, Dave's going to climb the Eiger. And John Prescott will be going on a Gay Awareness course.
vanderleun
August 5th, 2009 9:51pm Report this comment"Doesn’t he look petrified?"
Actually, David, he doesn't. I suspect what's going on in your "question" is a bit of what is called projection.
porkbelly
August 5th, 2009 10:41pm Report this commentMeanwhile your average Russian male sits sweating in the banya, his fat belly heaving as he sucks down another cigarette and reaches for the vodka bottle. Are we sure Putin isn't really German?
Publius
August 6th, 2009 10:16am Report this commentDoes Miss Harman have plans for similar topless poses?
simon
August 6th, 2009 12:37pm Report this commentSaddleworth nails it. There was a little something reminiscent of Berlusconi, but I was diverting to the wrong Italian - these photo sets actually bring Mussolini to mind.
Trafalgar
August 6th, 2009 2:22pm Report this commentPutin is living prrof that the Russians do not have a sense of humour.
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