Strong-arm tactics

Move over, Arnold Schwarzenegger – there’s a new action-man politician in town. Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin has been showing off his tough guy credentials again, in front of thousands of enthusiastic young supporters.

At a summer camp run by the pro-Putin Nashi movement, the premier scaled a climbing wall without the aid of a safety harness, took part in an arm-wrestling contest, and then tried to bend a metal frying pan with his bare hands, albeit unsuccessfully.

It’s something of a summer tradition for Mr Putin, who’s been similarly pictured before, riding shirtless on a horse, staging judo contests, and driving a formula one racing car.

And it’s won him some rather raunchy supporters: two weeks ago a group of female students in Moscow calling themselves ‘Putin’s Army’ offered to go topless in pursuit of their idol’s political advance.

Other scantily clad girls belonging to a social networking group called ‘I really like Putin’ staged a pop-up free car washing event in the capital, on Russian-made cars only, of course.

Although there’s no shortage of speculation, Mr Putin hasn’t yet confirmed whether he will be a candidate in next spring’s presidential elections. Nor has the current president – Dmitri Medvedev – who’s also managed to attract some risque support of his own. This week another group of wannabe glamour girls – lured, perhaps, by the promise of a free i-Pad – have released a video supporting him, proclaiming ‘Call us Medvedev girls. We are ready to do anything for Dmitri Medvedev’. In the short video, they pledge support for his recent bill restricting the sale of beer.. ‘its time to choose, beer or us’, they chant.

But Mr Putin, who served two terms as president between 2000 and 2008, remains Russia’s most popular politician. It seems his carefully calculated macho image is only enhancing his political prowess.