Yes, but is Sarah Palin sexier than Vladimir Putin?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 1:56pm

Magazine: Russia's Putin sexy, but not that sexy
By CATRINA STEWART and NATALIYA VASILYEVA – 8 hours ago

MOSCOW (AP) — He reportedly saved a TV crew from the jaws of a tiger and flexed his muscles before cameras in Siberia.

Vladimir Putin's macho image has made him plenty of fans among Russian women — but according to one magazine, that doesn't quite make him the nation's sexiest politician.

Sex & the City magazine's ranking of the nation's 20 sexiest politicians gives the top slot to Boris Nemtsov, a former opposition leader widely seen as a spent political force. Prime Minister Putin came in second.

"This is good news ... but I don't take it too seriously," said Nemtsov, who is pictured sitting on a bed, barefoot and dressed in a gray silk shirt and chinos.

It's rare that Putin loses out in any popularity contest at home — where he is widely admired for having restored national pride and stability after the difficult post-Soviet years under Boris Yeltsin.

Russia remains a country with limited press freedoms and carefully controlled images of its leadership — so it's unlikely an opposition figure could have pushed Putin into second place on weightier matters like leadership qualities.

Still, Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker, said he was taken aback.

"Putin is way better than Nemtsov," he said. "He's one of the sexiest politicians in the world." His looks may be average, he conceded, but his "decisive, harsh and unbending" character makes him extremely attractive.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave an embarrassed laugh when asked about the result — and said it was hard for him to comment.

A black belt in judo and an accomplished skier, ex-KGB spy Putin has been snapped in an array of macho shots, from flying a fighter jet to strutting his stuff on a nuclear submarine.

Last summer, photographs of a bare-chested Putin fishing, horse riding and off-roading in Siberia with Prince Albert of Monaco prompted admiring women to flood local newspaper Web sites with excited letters.

In his most recent escapade, Putin last month was said to have saved a TV crew from a gory death at the hands of a tiger, shooting it in the nick of time with a tranquilizer gun in Russia's Far East region of Ussuriland.

Compiled from an anonymous poll among 20 Sex & the City female employees, most of them in their mid-30s, the results are sometimes surprising.

Eduard Limonov — an aging opposition figure who sports a tufted haircut and goatie — made the list at number 14. Thrice married, his current partner is some 30 years his junior.

"Putin's just short — what's sexy about that?" laughed Limonov, before conceding that Putin's power gave him sex appeal.

Even Russia's highest office couldn't get Dmitry Medvedev into the top five: the diminutive president came in seventh.

The magazine's blog is now allowing the public to weigh in — and readers have restored Putin to first place in the online poll.

As of Thursday, Putin had a narrow lead over Ilya Yashin, who leads the youth movement of opposition party Yabloko. Former Economy Minister German Gref comes in at third.

Some readers were perplexed by the magazine's ranking.

"Nemtsov? I haven't heard his name for ages," said one reader who was identified as Daria, a 23-year-old translator.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:00pm

John, where did you pull that article from?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:01pm

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8_2N3StCk58NZ4XZLHmPZs1OvSAD930FK9O0

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:04pm

Did you Photoshop the picture?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:06pm

No. I just did an image search on his name.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:12pm

The picture's been photoshopped. He's wearing a different necklace than in the originals.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:24pm

So he is. But how do we know which is the original?

[Craww]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 2:52pm

So he is. But how do we know which is the original?

LOL, really? A cursory glance?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 3:17pm

But what about the much discussed First Dude? See my thread below.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 3:41pm

[Scripps2]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 5:37pm

I hope this doesn't give Gordon Brown any ideas.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 5:47pm

I would have to say yes.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 8:10pm

I've been drooling over those Putin pix since they surfaced and even linked the tank top one here months ago.

As soon as I saw the fishing ones posted here I was logging in to mention that the necklace had been Photoshopped because I had studied every inch of those pictures. Yes, "studying" is what the kids are calling it these days.

Turns out heterosexual Gothampc has the same abiding interest that I did in the photos and beat me (as it were) to the punch with the details.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 9:46pm

"Yes, but is Sarah Palin sexier than Vladimir Putin?"

Nope...although I'm sure she's become the new right wing nocturnal emission poster girl.

Sorry, Ann Coulter.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/5/08 at 10:22pm

Brilliant Jimmy Kimmel quote re Palin:

"She looks like one of those women in the Van Halen videos who takes off her glasses, shakes out her hair, and then all of a sudden, she's in high heels and a bikini."

Posted: 9/5/08 at 10:57pm

[killertofu333]

Posted: 9/6/08 at 1:58am

Is it just me or do Putin's nipples seem to be glowing? His nips are a little white.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/6/08 at 11:23am

Radioactive t-ts, which one-up Bette Davis eyes.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/6/08 at 11:27am

They get that way after years of pulling and biting. He reported happily.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 9/6/08 at 11:47am

You see, killertofu333? They are glowing.

Updated On: 9/6/08 at 11:47 AM