Last month, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin caused quite a stir online when photographs and footage of his workout with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi.
Western media quickly covered the workout. It’s hard to ignore the Russian leader who has been photographed riding a horse topless or vigorously swimming through the icy Russian waters.
The media coverage of the workout was extensive, from serious to trivial: Vox’s publishing an analysis that claims the photo opportunity is about fear, while men’s magazine Esquire itemized the leaders’ outfits estimating that Putin’s cost $3, 200 in US dollars.
Out of this frenzy spilling through September, emerges a satirical Instagram account that gives Putin’s projection a bit further: as a motivational coach. It seems the next logical step from being photographed pumping iron with your No. 2.
Asked why he chose to satirize the Russian leader the handler of @putinspiration (with whom we chatted using Instagram’s new messaging feature), said Putin is no different from ordinary Instagram users.
“What drives Vlad to release photos of himself working out is exactly the same as anyone on Instagram.
“Every person who’s using Insty to give themselves a pat in the back is making their own propaganda. At least that’s what I’ve post-rationalised back to.”
“It’s mainly for the lols. I didn’t do it to prove a point but I think that;s why it kinda works in a weird way. It makes a creepy amount of sense how similar the two things are. But yeah. Cause I thought it looked funny is why.”
The handler said he had no political motivation on creating the account.
“Uhh, some of the headlines nod to political things, but I really don’t have any kind of agenda aside from making people laugh.”
The account is keen on the latest news on Vladimir Putin. The handler said he does keep up with the news.
“I saw someone at the Guardian backtracked a bunch of the images to their source dates and events. I think I know the top line common knowledge Putin news, the stuff everyone knows.”
“If the quotes were all obscure, it wouldn’t be as fun for as many people.”