Vlad the Impaler: Putin’s happy snaps from Siberian fishing trip burnish his image as macho outdoorsman

Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped to his waist to brave the cold waters of a mountain lake as part of a three-day fishing and hunting trip in the Siberian wilderness, the Kremlin said.

Putin, 64, is renowned for his strongman publicity stunts, which have contributed to his sky-high popularity ratings. The trip comes eight months before Russia’s presidential election next March and, though he has yet to announce his candidacy, Putin is widely expected to run and to win comfortably.

The hunting and fishing expedition took place on August 1-3 in the republic of Tyva in southern Siberia, on the Mongolian border, some 3,700km east of Moscow.