Opinion Captain Russia

Even a media exercise to present his more cuddly, approachable side prior to the Sochi Olympics, which begin today, involved him fondling an irascible Persian leopard into submission. According to Putin, wild animals and him are simpatico. Uncharitable observers would agree that Putin and predators indeed have a lot in common.

Action man Putin has cultivated quite the swashbuckling image over his years in public life. He has piloted firefighting planes, driven a Formula 1 car and taken a submersible 1,400 metres below the surface of Lake Baikal.

Items the frequently shirtless Putin, “the Steve Irwin of world leaders”, has checked off what seems to be a testosterone-laden bucket list include: staring down another leopard way back in 2009, tranquilising a tiger, going treasure-diving for archaeological remains at an excavation of an ancient Greek port, snuggling with a polar bear, bending a frying pan with his bare hands and, most famously, showing off his imperviousness to petty concerns like Siberian temperatures by barechesting his way through a hunt on horseback.

Those post-G20 summit parties must be excruciating for all the other presidents and prime ministers. Who else can claim to put two of the world’s largest mammals, bears and whales, on notice in as many days? In 2010, after warning bears that it is they who “should be afraid of people”, he fired darts at a whale off Russia’s far eastern coast.

It’s enough to make one wonder what Putin’s alternative Olympics would look like.