How tyrant Putin went from gaunt geek to bloated brute after years of Botox, plastic surgery, and steroids
DERANGED tyrant Vladimir Putin shed his geeky image with the help of steroids and extensive plastic surgery to become the brute he is today.
Pictures from through the years show the 69-year-old Russian President's transformation from skinny and wrinkled to bloated and bulky, which experts have claimed is down to his expensive procedures.
As Putin's finger rests on the nuclear button, and his troops bombard Ukraine, the extent of his apparent vanity has been laid bare.
Yesterday, former foreign secretary Lord Owen claimed Putin's aggressive Ukrainian invasion was down to his taking steroids, with the medical doctor saying changes in his face made it appear he had been taking the muscle-boosting drugs.
The former Labour MP, 83, told Times Radio: "Look at his face, see how that has changed - he now has an oval face.
"People who said, oh, it's plastic surgery or Botox, I don't believe that at all.
"He's on either anabolic steroids as a bodybuilder - and he's very proud of his muscles and strips to the waist and everything like that - or he's on corticosteroids.
"If you're on these drugs, this gives you this face.
"It reduces your immunity and makes you more vulnerable to Covid.
"This man has been in complete isolation, quite extraordinary, won't see anybody, stays miles away, tremendous pressures.
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"Which indicates he's on a steroid and probably, maybe, a combination of both.
"And we ought to fess up to it, that carries with it, particularly anabolic steroids, bodybuilders, aggressiveness that comes through.
"I think his personality has changed, but don't believe he's mad.
"He's very clever and able, and somebody who you don't want as an enemy, and he's ruthless."
Rumours of Putin's alleged use of steroids or plastic surgery have been around for years, and one popular joke in Russia goes: "In response to the charge there are no new faces in Russian politics, Vladimir Putin got one."
In 2019, top UK cosmetic surgeon Gerard Lambe told The Sun Online Putin's face displayed the signs of cosmetic surgery.
Pictures of a 22-year-old Putin from 1972 show him with much heavier eyelids and fuller lips.
In comparison, more recent images show a much tauter face with thin lips and less visible eyelids.
Look at his face, see how that has changed - he now has an oval face
Lord Owen
"Putin's facial contouring has clearly changed over the years and while our face shape can become thinner with age - his is noticeably wider and plumper," he said.
"This would largely be down to cheek fillers. I'd say he's clearly got a dedicated aesthetic surgeon on his team as these fillers were certainly quite subtle to start.
"In images from about seven years ago he certainly looks much more gaunt and craggy but some work has been done to create a youthful, fuller contour with fillers."
The Russian leader's love of macho photo opportunities is notorious, whether it be him topless on a horse, hosting public judo sessions, or hunting with machine guns.
A photo of Putin riding a horse shirtless in Siberia's Tuva region in 2009 became one of the most infamous images of the "strongman" President but was far from a one-off.
That same year, pictures emerged of him fishing shirtless while on a trip with Prince Albert II of Monaco.
In 2011, he was seen riding a Harley-Davidson trike in full leather while in a motorbike convoy with youth organisation The Night Wolves.
The group is extremely controversial owing to its extremely nationalistic and anti-LGBT views and previously fought as Putin's paramilitary forces in the Donbas occupation in 2014.
In 2015, he was pictured in a small submarine search for sunken treasure in the Black Sea, months after his forces controversially annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
That same year, he also looked to demonstrate his athletic prowess by taking part in an ice hockey game between Kremlin officials and oligarchs and former NHL stars.
He is also frequently seen at judo demonstrations or pictured working out in the gym.
And Putin's need to project a macho image seems to be tied to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, a 38-year-old Putin, a KGB officer in East Germany, returned to his native St Petersburg with just £200 in savings, to discover an empire on the brink of collapse.
The diminutive 5ft7in Putin was always small for his age and claimed in 2015 that he often got into fights with other boys.
"If a fight is inevitable you have to throw the first punch," he said, in a chilling foreshadow of the recent Ukraine conflict.
He has also described the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the creation of a number of new states such as Ukraine, as "the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the (20th) Century".
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In a Sun opinion piece, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat described Putin as "an old-fashioned gangster fuelled by paranoia and a bully's desire to frighten".
While in his exclusive column, Piers Morgan asked who will stop this "vile, snivelling, ruthless, heartless, narcissistic bully".