Vladimir Putin has been portrayed as a hunky muscled cover star alongside China’s athletic-looking leader Xi Jinping for a new bizarre calendar.
The eye-opening images are part of the 2025 edition produced for Russia’s spooks, the feared FSB security service.
On the front page of the annual chart Putin appears sporting what could be a leather gilet over a black T-shirt bearing a white ‘Z’ symbol, the letter which has been used by Russian to mark its units during the invasion of Ukraine.
His butch look is accessorised with a military-looking watch and wristband, and a facial expression that would not look out of place in the comedy film, Zoolander.
In the movie actor, Ben Stiller’s male model character used an intense stare, known as ‘blue steel’, to shock and immobilise his foes.
Posing alongside Putin is the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who the illustrator has made look almost equally as muscled wearing a casual polo shirt.
The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party’s shirt has a Chinese flag on the left arm and an image of a dragon emblazoned on the chest.
FSB calendars have developed something of a cult following over the years sparking bafflement and wry laughter in equal measure.
This year’s offering matches those for 2024 and 2023 in that it heavily focuses on the war in Ukraine and on stylised examples of the Russian military or folklore.
For one month, a giant figure that is meant to depict a Russian medieval knight known as a bogatyr can be seen holding up another soldier dressed in medieval attire outside the American Capitol building.
Boygatyrs are revered in Russia as legendary noble fighters and the one in this picture is attacking an adversary who has the flags of Ukraine, Poland, the European Union, Taiwan and Britain on his tunic. Also amongst the flags is the rainbow pride banner associated with LGBT communities.
In another drawing from the 2025 calendar, a Russian female soldier is drawn with her arm resting on some kind of mechanised fighting vehicle, and in other images homage is paid to drone pilots and service dogs, as well as one month is dedicated to the secretive Wagner mercenary fighting force.
