Politicians and world leaders are constantly under scrutiny and are often mocked for their verbal gaffes and physical clumsiness. Until the modern era in which declining U.S. President Joe Biden has become the standard for mockery given his numerous falls off bicycles and apparently up the stairs to aircraft, 1970s President Gerald Ford occupied the position. But at least Ford fell down the stairs, not up.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet been caught appearing to be comically clumsy, but the public is laughing at recent images of the autocrat for wearing sound-muffling ear protectors in a strange way.
Pictures of the Russian president show him at a shooting range wearing hearing protection, but with the band holding the ear pads sticking out in front of his mouth, instead of on top of the head as they are intended to be worn. He was basically wearing the device on his chin.
Russian bloggers and others are mocking their president by speculating that he would not allow the headband to touch his scalp in order not to disturb the careful arrangement of sparse hair that allegedly hides his baldness. One of them, Rustum Adagamov, claimed that Putin’ barber does some wizardry to hide the gleaming scalp, and that Putin thought “headphones will ruin all the beauty.”
This seems unlikely, given that it is obvious to any observer that Putin is entirely bald on the top of his head.
Of course, Putin has serious business on his plate prosecuting Russia’s war against Ukraine. The conflict began ten years ago, but jumped to much more dangerous level in early 2022 when Russia fully invaded the country it shares a border with. On August 21, Russia announced that its troops had penetrated farther into Eastern Ukraine and had successfully pushed back Ukrainian soldiers in the area of Kursk. But a senior military commander said Russia cannot afford to be complacent, as they believe the Ukrainian military is re-forming for another attack.
According to Alexander Bogomaz, Russian border guards and military personnel successfully fought off a Ukrainian sabotage and spying attempt on August 21.
The attempt was set to take place in the district of Klimovo, which sits on the border of the Chernihiv region in Ukraine. Bryansk is northwest of Kursk, and a Ukrainian incursion there has been going on since early August, 2024.
