Putin Trip Is Tough-Guy Photo Op

Official pics show Russian PM swimming, riding bareback in Siberia
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2009 4:42 PM CDT
Putin Trip Is Tough-Guy Photo Op
Vladimir Putin goes for a swim.   (AP Photo/ RIA Novosti, Alexei Drizhinin, Pool)

Vladimir Putin spent his vacation in southern Siberia swimming, climbing trees, and riding a horse bareback—all while shirtless. Though state news agencies portrayed the Russian prime minister’s trip as a vacation, the series of tough-guy photographs that emerged make it hard not to think he had a motive beyond recreation, notes the Telegraph: shoring up his image as a ripped, fearless man-of-action.
(More Vladimir Putin stories.)

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