Victory in an ‘all-star’ ice hockey team led by Russian president and unveiling of a bronze bust near St Petersburg take macho image to new levels

The carefully weighted pass came in, the crowd cheered, and the puck was swept deftly into the goal by Vladimir Putin. It was a routine repeated again and again, as the 62-year-old Russian president took to the ice in Sochi to lead an “all-star” team featuring former NHL legends to an 18-6 victory, in which Putin himself scored eight of the goals.

It ended a good week for Putin, during which he hosted dozens of non-western leaders in Moscow and received a surprisingly conciliatory US secretary of state, John Kerry, in Sochi.



The hockey game will dispel any lingering doubts about the health of the president, who disappeared from public view for nearly two weeks early this year amid swirling rumours of ill health.



It also suggests the cult of celebrity around the leader, who has always been filmed carrying out various macho stunts, could be reaching new levels.

This weekend, a group of Cossacks in a village near St Petersburg unveiled a monument to Putin, featuring a bronze bust of the Russian leader stylised as a Roman emperor and swathed in a toga.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cossacks stand next to a bust of Russian President Vladimir Putin which depicts him as a Roman emperor Photograph: Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

The Putin celebrity cult has swung into a higher gear since the annexation of Crimea last year. Across the country, shops and kiosks sell T-shirts, mugs and key-rings featuring the Russian president in a variety of heroic poses. One favourite shows Putin in the boxing ring, knocking out Barack Obama, while others show him riding horses, launching rockets or simply looking pleased with himself.

Putin is an avid ice hockey player and plays regular training matches with a number of government officials and businessmen. Saturday’s game also featured the businessmen Gennady Timchenko as well as Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, all three of whom have known Putin since his youth and have risen to become billionaires during his rule. The often sidelined prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, was left to watch the game from the stands.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vladimir Putin fishing on the Khemchik river in 2007. Photograph: Dmitry Astakhov/EPA

Every player on the ice wore the number 70, to mark the 70th anniversary of victory in the second world war, which was celebrated with pomp on 9 May. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, oversaw a huge parade on Red Square, featuring 16,000 soldiers, tanks and aircraft. This weekend, Shoigu also took to the ice, playing on Putin’s team and scoring three goals of his own.

Outside Russia, however, not everybody has such a high opinion of the Russian president. An art installation in Riga, Latvia, was unveiled last week that appeared to be an effigy of Putin nailed to a cross. The Russian embassy in the country released a statement expressing “extreme indignation and disgust” over the installation, which appeared in the courtyard of Riga’s old KGB headquarters, now a museum.

