Who Is Mr. Putin?

Vladimir Putin is still a mystery man for the rest of the world. You either love him or hate him. The great majority of Russians certainly support him: they like his tough macho image, his flat unsophisticated jokes and the fact that he alone "stands up to the West" and "protects Mother Russia". Whether those statements reflect the truth or not is subject to debate.

In this article, we will examine who is Mr. Putin and why Russians love him so much (hint: for the same reason they love Stalin and hate Gorbachev).

More after the jump.

To be continued...