When it comes to the President of the Russian Federation, there are a few things that spring to mind when we hear his name. The epitome of an alpha male, photoshopped images of him riding a bear, or political violence. However, one of the lesser talked about aspects of Vladimir Putin is his gun walk. A visible characteristic that’s a remnant of his days in the KGB, let’s look into it!
Putin’s KGB Days
It’s no secret that Vladimir Putin was once in the KGB. Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years and rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant Colonel, before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg.
“Communism is a blind alley, far away from the mainstream of civilization”.
– Vladimir Putin, 1999.
The majority of his spy career was in Dresden in East Germany. Putin’s German language skills are often regarded as exemplary as a result of this. But aside from some cool life stories and an interesting outlook on Communism, the KGB service also left him with an interesting characteristic: a gun walk!
What is a Gun Walk?
Walking with a pistol can be compared to walking around with a cordless drill in a holster. You’re moving with about 1–3 pounds of equipment on your hip. Sometimes, it gets in the way. This often results in what is known as a gun walk.
According to Urban Dictionary, a Gun Walk is a limped, over spaced, or odd walk that a person uses when they’re carrying a handgun. The purpose is to keep the weapon from being visible through your shirt or to keep it from falling down your pant leg if you are wearing loose/baggy pants.
A KGB training manual from the Soviet Union instructed KGB spies to keep their sidearm in their right hand close to their chest and to move forward with one side, usually the left. The reason behind this is believed to allow KGB agents to draw their weapon as fast as possible when confronted with an enemy.
Vladimir Putin’s Gun Walk
As one of the most powerful and controversial world leaders, Vladimir Putin’s body language has been studied intensely by researchers around the world. In 2015, the British Medical Journal published a study that revealed Vladimir Putin still demonstrates the “clearly reduced right-sided arm swing” characteristic of a KGB operative.
There is absolutely no doubt that this is a gun walk stemming from the extensive weapons training he would have undergone during his 16-year career in the feared intelligence agency of the USSR.
It Ain’t Just Vlad…
Just like in Romania and Bulgaria, the fall of Communism didn’t mean that the communists went away. Many of them dropped their uniforms and party cards before slipping into powerful positions in the post-Communist world. Russia was no exception.
After the gun walk of Vladimir Putin was revealed, it fascinated medical researchers who subsequently began studying the body language of other Russian politicians and officials. What they found resulted in a fascinating insight into post-Soviet Russia, who is behind it, and its strong links to the USSR.
The study, led by Dutch professor Bastiaan Bloem, discovered the same characteristic gun walk in Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. It was also seen in former Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov as well as Sergei Ivanov, and also in senior Russian military commander Anatoly Sidorov.
Just as Vladimir Putin was, Sergei Ivanov was formerly a KGB agent who operated in Europe during the height of the Cold War. Serdyukov and Sidorov both received military training in the Army of the Soviet Union.
The odd one out of these gun walk enthusiasts is Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The former lawyer who is far less charismatic than his ex-KGB cohorts, he has neither military service or time spent in the KGB behind him. Yet he still displays the prominent gun walk.
Although Medvedev did do a little military reservist training in University, it’s unlikely such little exposure to weapons would result in a prominent gun walk that his colleagues display. Trying to copy the big boys, perhaps?
Well, that might be the case. See, Medvedev (bear in Russian) was hand chosen by Vladimir Putin to serve as the President of Russia in between Putin’s second and third terms. Many see him as a puppet leader to replace Putin in order for the Russian president to abide by state laws on presidential terms.
Putin is, however, Medvedev’s mentor and many of the latter’s body language and speech often imitates that of Putin. So it’s highly possible that Medvedev is attempting to imitate his gun walk as well.
Conclusion to Putin’s Gun Walk
So the next time you see the Russian president swinging his arm in an asymmetrical fashion, remember that it’s likely a leftover behavioural adaptation resulting from Soviet intelligence Service training. If you see someone walking towards you in a similar fashion, be alert. But then again, it could just be rickets or something.
