WE KNOW THAT Vladimir Putin is a man of many talents but he is not universally popular in Russia it would seem.

Gunning for another spell as president, the country’s current prime minister took time out from being an adventurer, a sometime scientist, an airborne firefighter, a singer, a peace prize winner, and someone who can uncover sixth century artefacts on a scuba dive to appear at a martial arts event at the weekend.

Himself a judo black belt, Putin turned up at the Olimpisky stadium in Moscow to congratulate Russian Fedor Emelianenko for beating the American Jeff Monson but he received a less than warm reception from the crowd.

Watch (via srdjo123):

Despite the booing being clearly audible, the Russian leadership has been scrambling to explain the matter as merely a case of the fans in the stadium being full of beer and unable to go to the loo to empty their bladders, the Guardian reports.

“You should go to the toilet beforehand, gentlemen,” Kristina Potupchik from the Kremlin youth group Nashi wrote.

The Financial Times reports that although Putin’s popularity is waning slightly he has little to worry about with 61 per cent of people expressing arrival in a recent poll by Moscow’s Levada Center.

More worrying for his United Russia party might be that their support has fallen by nine per cent in recent months.

Undeterred, Putin continues to show of his machoism. Earlier in the weekend he donned his skates to play ice hockey with Russia’s national team, CSKA (via telegraphtv):

Read: Has Vladimir Putin had cosmetic surgery?