From shirtless horse riding to 'Russian savior', how did Putin become a master of posing?

 

From shirtless horse riding to 'Russian savior', how did Putin become a master of posing?

 

Vladimir Putin has always been aware of the profound impact that images and videos have on people during his presidency.

When I first interviewed him in 2001, an aide quickly removed the water glasses from the table just moments before the cameras rolled.

I asked, “Why did you do that?”

“We don’t want anyone to think these are vodka glasses,” he replied. “And we can’t risk the glasses falling when we go on live TV. TV is as powerful as an atomic bomb in terms of propaganda.”

Everyone in Russia, especially Putin, understood that TV was key to consolidating power, says author and political analyst Peter Pomerantsev.

Over time, Putin has transformed Russia from a fragile and emerging democracy into a system that largely revolves around him as president. In the process, he has also changed significantly.

Early photos show him as a thin, taciturn man who shyly posed for the camera. So how did this seemingly quiet, reserved figure transform into a president who has become a prominent figure in the spotlight?

A personality shaped by TV

His interest in the importance of images dates back long before he came to power. Putin grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the era of TV.

His favorite characters were the spy heroes of Soviet TV dramas and movies. According to him, it was these quiet and powerful secret agents that led him to join the KGB (Russian secret service).

While working in the KGB, he tried to avoid being exposed. Later, even as a government official, he did not stand out much.

But when he became acting president of Russia in 1999 and then elected president a few months later, he and his advisers understood that the media and images are very important in shaping the personality of a leader.

For this reason, unnecessary things were removed during the interview. Putin was shown as if he probably did not drink alcohol. For example, at the Valdai Discussion Club, where guests were served alcohol, Putin drank only tea with honey.

When Putin did drink, his aides tried to hide it. I once met a local museum curator who told me that he was sitting with the president, eating Russian pancakes with vodka added to enhance the flavor.

“But don’t tell anyone,” he told me. “He was very strict about it. I could get in trouble.”

Part of the plan was to make it clear that he was not like his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, whose public drunkenness embarrassed many Russians.

Putin donned a pilot’s helmet to fly a fighter jet. He also showed off his skills in judo. All this was to send the message that he was a strong, healthy, and practical man, not a sick or drunkard.

Perhaps the most famous were the photos that emerged in 2007, in which he was seen riding a horse shirtless, or fishing in the river, or showing off his muscles while showing off his swimming skills.

So was it all real? Or was there a deliberate element of humor in these photos? Pomerantsev believes his publicity team knew exactly what they were doing.

“For some viewers it seems very superficial, but we show it in a slightly satirical way so that it seems somewhat impressive. For other viewers, the message was that Russia should be led by a traditional strongman.”

 

“Putin was playing a kind of traditional Soviet-era leader, but he was doing it at a time of reality shows, MTV and a changing modern culture,” he adds.

“Putin was one of the pioneers of this style,” says Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and adviser to US presidents. “He created a popular leader and a powerful figure in the 21st century who was widely admired.”

Putin was clearly sending different messages to different people. He probably wanted to show the outside world that Russia was no longer weak but a strong force that could not be ignored. A bear with sharp teeth and claws, as he himself put it.

Other, more prominent displays seemed even stranger. Perhaps they reflected the Leningrad schoolboy who was now fulfilling his childhood dreams.

Diving into the Black Sea to ‘discover’ pre-arranged objects, flying in the sky with a motorized hang glider while accompanied by rare birds, and petting a Siberian leopard cub were all prominent in the pictures.

Putin said that the aim of all this was to raise environmental and scientific awareness. But did he realize that it all seemed to be going too far? Or did no one dare to say this to him anymore? Or did he simply not care about the opinions of others?

Re-emerging in new ways

Early photographs of Putin show a strong determination behind his calm face, as shown in his 1985 photo with his Stasi (East German secret police) ID card, and this self-effacing seriousness was appropriate for his KGB responsibilities, which the agency trained him in.

He initially worked with the mayor of St. Petersburg and then, after moving to Moscow, joined Yeltsin’s presidential administration.

In photographs from this period, he is often seen standing back or to the side, never looking directly at the camera or appearing in the center of the picture.

Nina Khrushchev, the great-granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, said she was told in the 1990s that Putin was known in KGB circles as a “moth”—a person who could hide anywhere, or a man who lived in the shadows.

But when he became president, the situation was different. He seemed to welcome the opportunity to take on a different role.

A few years later, when he was photographed for Time magazine’s 2007 Person of the Year, he leaned back in his chair and looked straight into the camera, like an emperor on his throne or a mafia boss.

“He was showing off his power to me,” says Platonov, the Time photographer who captured the iconic image. “As far as I know, Putin likes these pictures. Many of his supporters like them too. They show him as a strong nationalist leader.”

Now, when he appears on camera, these occasions are very carefully orchestrated, as if he wants to keep his distance from the outside world.

According to Fiona Hill, “He clearly wants to be careful so that people cannot easily reach him. This shows that he is concerned about his personal safety, whether it is from germs or possible enemy attacks.”

The war in Ukraine has now become a central part of his identity. “If we look at Putin when he returned to the Kremlin in 2012, he himself was not clear about what he was and what his purpose was. But now he seems to have found his mission and role, and that is war.”

However, more than four years later, the full-scale war with Ukraine has also become a burden. It seems harder to continue it day by day, but ending it is not without risks either.

Putin has established an economic warfare system and a structure of domestic repression that he cannot easily dismantle without great personal risk.

Twenty-five years into power, he seems distant and inflexible, as if caught in a trap of his own making. It is a far cry from the dynamic athlete and action hero he once sought to portray.