“This is a guy who can drink a quart of vodka - even though he is a teetotaler - and wrestle a bear to the ground,” Mr. Putin projecting an aura of “machismo” for Russians to show off in their homes, he said. “This is a particularly sensitive point for Putin himself and for anybody in charge of policing his image.” “There are a lot of ways you could visually attack him, but something that goes after his masculinity, anything that challenges his image as a hetero-normative male, in particular, will offend,” Mr.