9 over-the-top, macho Putin stunts that were nowhere near as impressive as they seemed

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9 over-the-top, macho Putin stunts that were nowhere near as impressive as they seemed

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Vladimir Putin is keen to portray himself as a patriotic strongman who will lead Russia to greatness on the world stage. To achieve this, he's taken part in various over-the-top, macho photo ops, many of which are reportedly his idea.

Putin hopes these images, cultivated since he became president in 1999, will "create connections" with his constituents in Russia, said Fiona Hill, who wrote a biography of the Russian president.

However, many of them don't really stand up to scrutiny - scroll down to see what they are.

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"Discovering" fragments of two ancient Greek urns under the Black Sea — which his spokesman later admitted were planted.

"Discovering" fragments of two ancient Greek urns under the Black Sea — which his spokesman later admitted were planted.

Putin found the artefacts in the six-feet-deep, clear water and announced "the boys and I found them," according to The Guardian. Journalists proceeded to ridicule the photo op.

Two months later, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted on the Dozhd TV channel:

"Of course they were found in the course of an expedition several weeks or days earlier. Of course they were left there or placed there. It's completely normal.

"There's no reason to gloat about this and everything else."

Leading endangered birds to safety on a hang glider... even though they don't need help finding their way.

Leading endangered birds to safety on a hang glider... even though they don't need help finding their way.

This garnered a large amount of ridicule from the press.

Julia Ioffe, a reporter for The New Republic at the time, said after the photo was published: "He is seen as a ridiculous man, deeply out of touch not only with the political reality, but with reality in any wider sense of the word."

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Playing a few notes on a piano while waiting to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. You can decide for yourself whether he's good.

 

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