Swim, ride, walk, climb and run like a kid. Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 67 on Monday, October 7. He celebrated with his family and friends, receiving congratulations from his counterparts around the world, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said. He was also accompanied by a very close collaborator, architect of the image of 'Siberian male, of Putin.
In the photographs released by the government, the president appears hiking, collecting mushrooms and admiring the landscape in Siberia . The remote area is located at an altitude of 2,500 meters above sea level.
With him was Defense Minister Serguei Shoigu , a friend of nature and the challenges to resistance. Putin was also photographed picking mushrooms along with his Minister of Defense, who over time has become the president's personal 'tour operator' , and has managed to survive all his political problems while maintaining access to Putin. Shoigu also likes hunting and extreme sports.
The head of the Russian republic of Tuvá, Sholbán Kara-ool, has posted a video on his Facebook page where the Russian president appears relaxing in the Siberian taiga. Shoigu has become Putin's permanent companion when it comes to hunting or fishing. As Mijail Zigar has detailed in his book 'All the Kremlin men', it was Shoigu who organized the famous fishing expedition in 2007 in which the Russian president for the first time posed with a naked torso.
Cross the river up to three times just for the photo
There is another still more famous photo in which Putin also comes out without a shirt and with a cowboy hat while riding a horse . The image was taken in 2009 and was also on one of the trips 'made in Shoigu'. In fact Shoigu even directed the photo shoot. "It was he who chose the cowboy hat among the locker room of the Ministry of Emergency Situations [portfolio held by Shoigu at the time] and chose the tree that Putin climbed that day, " recalls Zigar.
Eyewitnesses say that Putin is a disciplined photographic model. Able to cross the Jemchik river three times so that the camera correctly catches it swimming in a butterfly.
The Siberian taiga has become Putin's favorite place to 'rest' in recent years. Over there he usually makes tours through its forests and mountains. Last year and the previous year, the president of Russia also spent a few days in Tuvá, a region located in southern Siberia. The choice of place is not accidental. Shoigu is a native of this small Russian republic bordering Mongolia.
Holidays have served Putin to forget about problems at home. Exhausted the patriotic 'high' that brought the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin's popularity has fallen significantly. In the last year the percentage of Russians who do not want to continue in the Kremlin has increased by 11 points, according to the Levada Center.
For those who have not been relaxing days it has been for the bodyguards of Putin and Shoigu, who have a hard time following them through the forest and carrying the famous nuclear briefcase. It seems difficult to keep track of these two mature explorers.
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