The Kremlin has released pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin working out at the gym with Prime Minister Dmitrty Medvedev on Sunday (August 30), images apparently aimed at shoring up Putin's rugged, masculine image as his popularity dips.
Wearing a white T-shirt, track suit trousers and running shoes, Putin is shown on muscle-building apparatus in a publicity stunt that recalled previous shots of him shirtless riding a horse, flying a supersonic jet and hunting a tiger.
Putin's approval ranking has been dented by a sluggish economy and free-falling rouble whose value has halved since last year due to a decline in the oil price and Western sanction over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis.
