Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who returned in office in May for a historic third term, has turned 60.
Putin has switched between the posts of prime minister and president since he assumed power in 1999. He first elected as Kremlin’s prime minister, then president, then prime minister and now he is again the incumbent president of the country.
Faced with the growing opposition movement against his rule, Putin has refused to step down and never ruled out running for another six-year Kremlin term in 2018, AFP reported.
Putin has over the past few years staged a series of age-defying stunts to prove, according to critics, he has not lost his prime.
He dived to the bottom of Lake Baikal aboard a submarine, flew a fighter jet, drove a Formula One car, rode a bobsled, paraded a well-toned chest on a holiday in Siberia and most recently took to the controls of a hang-glider to fly with cranes in Siberia.
“Looking at his life, psychologically, he feels young — he feels 40 and not 60,” said blogger and editor of Russky Zhurnal website Alexander Morozov.
The general retirement age for men in Russia is 60, while average life expectancy for males stood at 62.8 years, according to data collected in 2009.
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