How KGB guide on strutting your stuff helped Putin stride to power
IT MAY be the ultimate power walk, adopted by world leaders to project an aura of fearless masculinity.
Scientists have revealed how to acquire the distinctive gait taught by the KGB and put into practice by Russia’s leaders, including Vladimir Putin.
A study found that Mr Putin and his senior officials all walk in a manner consistent with Soviet security agency training – holding the right arm close to the body with a reduced swing while leading with the left.
Experts discovered that the Russian president, prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, two former defence ministers and a highly ranked military commander all stride out in similar style.
However, noting that Mr Medvedev had never had military or intelligence training, they suggest he may actually have adopted the “gunslinger’s gait” to imitate his boss.
Experts led by Bastiaan Bloem, a professor of neurology at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, admit that when they first looked at Mr Putin’s right-sided arm swing they thought it might be a sign of early Parkinson’s disease.
The scientists’ breakthrough came when they discov- ered a KGB training manual with specific instruction on how operatives should advance in the field.
“When moving, it is absolutely necessary to keep your weapon against the chest or in the right hand,” it said. “Moving forward should be done with one side, usually the left, turned somewhat in the direction of movement.”
An analysis of other Russian leaders who had either been KGB officials or members of the military found it was not uncommon to walk in such a way. The study, published in the
BMJ, says: “We propose that this new pattern, which we term ‘gunslinger’s gait’, may result from a behavioural adaptation, possibly triggered by KGB or other forms of weaponry training.”
They found other examples of a reduced arm swing in cowboys depicted in Wild West films.
The study suggests Mr Medvedev seeks to emulate Mr Putin. It quotes an observer from 2008: “Putin and Medvedev walked out on to Red Square in leather jackets and jeans, Medvedev trying to ape Putin’s macho gait.”