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It says the strongman had a facelift in 2010, is “terrified” of growing old and always travels with a personal chef for fear of being poisoned.

He is said to feast on cottage cheese, is lazy and is always late for appointments - even making the Queen wait half an hour for a meeting with him.

The programme claims Putin beat his ex wife, and says he was willing to shoot unarmed protestors in East Germany during the peaceful revolution of 1989.

The makers of the controversial show say sources and research suggest Putin, 62, has survived five assassination attempts in recent years.

German TV firm ZDF aired Putin the Man on Tuesday, using top secret police files and interviews with former KGB members.

They also used western sources to build a real picture of the despot - who is threatening peace in Europe with his ongoing battle with Ukraine.

The programme branded him as a “lazy, drunken spy”.

One of his KGB bosses, Putin’s chief for five years until 1990, labelled the hard-man a “desktop spy - a macho playing upon a safe stage”.

A file entry from the time revealed how Putin got smashed at a pal’s birthday party.

It read: “Mrs. H. remembers that on the birthday party of her father he grabbed her particularly fiercely, hugging and kissing her.

“His colleagues in the KGB spoke about his fondness for hard liquor.”

A KGB worker named Lina told his bosses that he regularly beat his wife Ludmilla - who he divorced from last year.

One of his biographers told the programme that he used to be “fat, lazy and disillusioned.”

Putin once boasted that he works like a galley slave for Russia, but the programme suggests otherwise.

He sleeps late, works only in the afternoon after breakfasting on cottage cheese, takes a hot then a cold bath, and then goes to a gym stuffed with expensive American sports equipment.

“He regularly comes late to appointments,” said one Kremlin insider.

“He even made the Queen of England wait for half and hour, his ministers often several hours.”

Biographer Ben Judah said: “Putin is afraid of physical decay, he is afraid of ageing.”

A western intelligence report was used alleging he underwent a facelift in 2010 because he wanted a “young, dynamic appearance.”

The documentary shows he dreamed of being sent west to build up and run his own spy network.

But his masters in KGB headquarters in Moscow thought he was too immature to carry the move out.