Vladimir Pinup?

It looks like Abercrombski & Fitchivich has a new cover boy.

Recently Russian President Vladimir Putin and Albert II of Monaco - the former head of the KGB and that foremost impregnator of flight attendants - decided to make a Siberian version of A River Runs Through It. All I can say is, thank the gods it wasn't Brokeback Gulag.

What would normally count as the most shameless act of pandering to the female vote since Poppy Bush made Dan Quayle his running mate becomes an almost indecipherable act when committed by figure as enigmatic as Putin. It might be that he's demonstrating his virility in a more modern way than Stalin (for which we can all be thankful), or it may just be that he's eager to distance himself from his resemblance to C. Montgomery Burns.

Russia's gay pundits have suggested Putin's recent topless antics demonstrate tacit support for greater tolerance of homosexuals in their country. I don't know if I believe a theory as far-fetched as that, but since homophobia there is endemic I have no problem supporting it either.