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The Washington Post

Gone are the photos of a bare-chested Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He’s instead pictured in a suit, flashing a thumb’s up to US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for February. He’s chauffeuring Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in his limo for October and then smiling alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for November.
The Kremlin-approved Putin calendar is a popular novelty item, and the international statesman flare to the 2020 iteration marks a departure from previous years.
For the 2019 calendar, Putin was photographed playing hockey, fishing shirtless in Siberia and petting animals. The intention was for him to come off as a fit outdoorsman, strong but relatable.
Russia: Vladimir Putin’s 20 years on the global stage
The calendars are a small part of a broader state-sponsored image-making campaign by the Kremlin, and the latest one presents Putin as not just a leader of Russians but a policy-shaper for the world with an increasingly aggressive foreign policy.
“I think it’s been a recurrent theme in sort of the Russian narrative – that Russia is a major power, that it’s one of the global centre of power,” said Eugene Rumer, director of the Russia and Eurasia programme at the Carnegie Endowment.
Putin is shown out of his suit and in nature in just one 2020 month, when he’s examining a small plant in the forest for August.

Photos of Putin alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump and Merkel, who just partnered with Putin on a lucrative business deal with the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline, adorn the February and September months.
November features Mohammed, who has visited Russia four times since June 2015 before welcoming Putin to Riyadh last month. Russia has pushed for Saudi Arabia to purchase its S-400 missile-defence system, and the two countries coordinate their activities in the world oil market.
Soldier, spy: more details of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Soviet past revealed
Meanwhile, Egypt signed a US$2 billion agreement with Russia earlier this year to buy more than 20 Su-35 fighter jets, an arrangement the United States is trying to put a stop to.
Putin then extended Russia’s influence in the Middle East last month by mediating Turkey’s military offensive into northern Syria, reaching an agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a full ceasefire.
Turkey and Russia now jointly control a wide swathe of territory just south of Turkey’s border, formerly held by Syrian Kurdish fighters allied with the US. Most important for Putin was that it strengthened Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key ally, by allowing him to regain control over more Syrian territory. Erdogan and Assad, though, did not make the 2020 Putin calendar sets.
There are six different state-approved Putin wall calendars, as well as a desktop version, with slight variations. Some are being sold on eBay and Amazon.

One of the calendars is devoted to just photos of Putin with animals. The second and third editions include photos of Putin with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Russia “has succeeded in inserting itself in a number of situations that are important to other major powers and they have no choice but to talk to Russia,” Rumer said.
“The Middle East is one where Russia has become an important actor.”
The day after his agreement with Turkey, Putin hosted the first-ever Russia-Africa summit, a splashy two-day event attended by leaders of 43 of Africa’s 54 countries.
Emphasising Putin’s international persona is a safe bet for the Kremlin. Putin’s foreign policy efforts are widely popular with Russians – even as he’s lost some ground domestically in a country plagued by income inequality and an economy that’s suffered from Western sanctions.
But, fittingly, the calendars seem to be even more popular abroad. In December last year, 2019 Putin calendars outsold those of Japanese celebrities in Japanese stores.


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Vladimir Putin

Russian leader Vladimir Putin keeps shirt on for his 2020 calendar

This photo released by G20 Summit's Press Office shows Russia's President Vladimir Putin (C), leaving his plane upon arrival at Ezeiza International airport in Buenos Aires province, on November 30, 2018, on the first day of the G20 Leaders' Summit.

A picture taken on August 26, 2018, shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) looking at vegetation during a short vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP)

There are six different state-approved 2020 Vladimir Putin wall calendars, as well as a desktop version, with slight variations. Some are being sold on eBay and Amazon. Photo: Amazon

Russian President Vladimir Putin makes an entry in the Honoured Visitor Book as he visit the Ivan Turgenev Museum on Ostozhenka Street in Moscow on November 10, 2018. File photo: AFP

Soldier, spy: more details of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Soviet past revealed

Russian President Vladimir Putin as KGB officer in 1980. File photo: Handout

epa07268361 Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) fires a cannon at noon as part of a standing tradition, during his visit to the Peter and Paul Fortress, the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, 07 January 2019. EPA-EFE/ALEXEI DRUZHININ/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL / POOL MANDATORY CREDIT

Russia: Vladimir Putin’s 20 years on the global stage

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a pistol during his visit to a newly-built headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow in 2006. File photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 06, 2000 Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) wears a navy officer's uniform while watching the tactical exercises of the Northern Fleet in the Barentsevo Sea from the "Karelia" nuclear submarine. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by - / POOL / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) takes part in a judo training session during a meeting with Russian national judo team in Moscow on January 8, 2016. / AFP / SPUTNIK / ALEKSEY NIKOLSKY

(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 24, 2010 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides Harley Davidson Lehman Trike as he leaves the meeting with motorbikers at their camp at Gasfort Lake near Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / POOL / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 16, 2005 Russian President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Olenogorsk military airport, near Murmansk. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by VLADIMIR RADIONOV / ITAR-TASS / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 19, 2018 Russian President Vladimir Putin looks through the scope as he shoots a Chukavin sniper rifle (SVC-380) during a visit to the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 30, 2015 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 19, 1999 Russian President Boris Yeltsin (R) shakes hands with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow's Kremlin. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by Elmira KOZHAYEVA / ITAR-TASS POOL / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 05, 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin swims the butterfly during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by ALEXEY DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 03, 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by ALEXEY DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, centre, sits on board a bathyscaphe as it plunges into the Black sea along the coast of Sevastopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. President Vladimir Putin plunged into the Black Sea to see the wreckage of a sunk ancient merchant ship which was found in the end of May. (Alexei Nikolsky/RIA-Novosti, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 16, 2015 Russia's President Vladimir Putin smiles during an ice hockey match as part of the Night Hockey league tournament in Sochi. - Twenty years ago on Friday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed his fourth prime minister in less than 18 months: Vladimir Putin, then a relatively unknown security services chief with scant experience of politics. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / SPUTNIK / AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005. File photo: AFP

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World

Russia & Central Asia


The Kremlin-approved Putin calendar is a popular novelty item



The Kremlin-approved Putin calendar is a popular novelty item, and the international statesman flare to the 2020 iteration marks a departure from previous years.


Russia

Russian leader Vladimir Putin keeps shirt on for his 2020 calendar

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} The Kremlin-approved Putin calendar is a popular novelty item

The Kremlin-approved Putin calendar is a popular novelty item