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MOSCOW — When Vladimir Putin rode a horse bare-chested through a rustic region of Siberia, it produced astonishing images casting him as a rugged Russian outdoorsman.
In the official photographs and video, shown on state television, Putin, 56, cultivates the macho image that Russians appear to love as they look to him to keep the country stable and strong more than a year after he stepped down as president.
For Russians, the association is the warrior heroes of fairy tales who rode horseback and defended Russia from foreign invaders.
“They are trying to play on Russian folk traditions,” said Yevgenia Albats, editor of the political magazine New Times.
Putin has long cultivated a macho image.
