Russian President Vladimir Putin gave students at a school an unconventional lesson on Tuesday - how to draw a cat's behind.

The at-times eccentric head of state was visiting the Kurgan region school on the first day of the academic year; sitting in on classes and answering questions on state exams.

At a computer class, he began drawing on a whiteboard up the front of the room, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

As he left the classroom a student asked what he had drawn, to which the president replied: "It's a cat. The rear view."

Putin visited the same school in 2012 to speak on modernisation of rural education.

It is unknown whether any anatomical art featured in the visit.