I taught Putin body language tricks to make him respected leader – now his diseased brain threatens to destroy the world
A MAN who taught Vladimir Putin body language and has known him for 30 years says his insane behaviour in Ukraine shows how much his mind has deteriorated in just a matter of months.
Australian Allan Pease, a world-renowned body language expert and successful author, first met the then-39-year-old Putin in 1991 in his home city of St Petersburg, just a year after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Allan and his wife Barbara, who is also in the communications industry, had travelled to the former USSR to exploit a gap in the market - providing training for politicians in ex-communist countries on how to be more 'Western' leaders.
Former KGB agent Putin had just been appointed as deputy by the newly-elected mayor of St Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak.
As Allan - known for many years as 'Mr Body Language' - told The Sun Online, the circumstances behind his meeting with Russia's future president were extremely lucky.
"We made three appointments with President Boris Yeltsin, but he never showed up.
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"Then one of our film crew who was documenting our visit told us they knew Anatoly Sobchak, the first officially-elected politician in Russia."
Allan went on: "We put to him that we'd show him how to go on TV. He loved the idea and agreed to meet us in St Petersburg's famous Winter Palace.
"But on the day of our meeting, he couldn't show, so he sent his deputy in his place. One Vladimir Putin."
At the time, Putin was not a widely-known figure in Russia, although his KGB past was common knowledge.
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Allan's first impressions of him were that, at 5 foot 7 inches, he was far shorter than he expected.
What he lacked in height, however, he made up for in brains.
"He was a fast learner, and quickly took onboard what I taught him," he said.
"Later, I saw him using those same techniques I taught him on body language on TV.
Also present at the Winter Palace, famously stormed at the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917, were 300 of Russia's new politicians.
Allan says he taught Putin a number of key lessons which he has used for much of the past 30 years.
STEEPLE POSE
Politicians in the USSR had a reputation for their aggressive speaking technique and unconventional diplomacy.
Notoriously in 1960 at the UN General Assembly, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoe and banged it on the desk to make a point in his furious response to a fellow delegate's speech.
Allan taught Putin one of the most crucial "power poses", the so-called "steeple pose".
He explained: "You put your hands together like a church steeple and lean back. Grin without showing your teeth.
"Body language is just the outward expression of emotional condition. It's a case of cause and effect.
"This stance makes you seem confident and in control of your own emotions. If you adopt this stance - even if you feel nervous, it has an effect.
"If you intentionally take this stance in a meeting or interview, you will start to feel more confident.
"Watch videos of Putin from before the Ukraine crisis. He adopts this stance. You won't see him crossing his arms."
It comes as...
- Putin has been compared to Hitler after reports of "mass deportations of Ukrainians to work camps in Russia"
- Ukraine has refused to surrender Mariupol to Putin's forces after a chilling Russian ultimatum
- Captured crying Russian soldiers claim their comrades have been thrown into mass graves as they call for an uprising against Putin
- Ukrainian intelligence claims Russian officials plan to poison Putin and have already chosen his successor
- Russian tanks 'opened fire' on an elderly care home in eastern Ukraine killing 56 and taking 15 hostage
- Dramatic Call Of Duty-style footage captures the moment Ukrainian forces blast a Russian Z-tank
SMILE & EMOTE
One of Allan's toughest challenges was teaching the ex-Soviets how to lose what he dubbed the "Russian face".
As he put it: "Men weren't permitted to smile in the Soviet armed forces, as you wouldn't be taken seriously.
"I told them that if you're going to do business with non-Russians, you have to smile."
Although Putin isn't known for his warm grin, photos of him from the early days of his presidency show him cracking a smile with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
He also made a rare show of emotion shortly after taking power in 2000, when he appeared at the funeral of his former mentor Anatoly Sobchak.
The Russian leader was visibly upset as he embraced Sobchak's widow.
As the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse said in 2018, Sobchak was the man who "plucked a middle-ranking KGB officer by the name of Vladimir Putin from obscurity and gave him his first job in politics".
SEMI-MARCH
Among the lessons that Allan taught Putin was walking in a "semi-march" with his arms swinging by his sides.
As he put it: "People who have power walk like they're semi-marching."
This more statesmanlike form of walking, with both arms swinging by the sides, was something that US President Ronald Reagan perfected in the 1980s, Allan claimed.
A photo from 2000 shows Putin and Blair attempting to "out-swagger" the other during a visit to Downing Street not long after he became president.
COOL & CALM
Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin was widely regarded as a joke by the end of his presidency.
"When we arrived, we wanted to meet Russia's new president Boris Yeltsin," he said.
"We knew he needed a lot of work on his presentation style as he came across as a bit of an idiot.
"He was always dancing, rarely sober. Not what the Russian people wanted.
"Our thinking was we would teach Yeltsin how to present himself on TV, and how to come over as a more credible leader."
Putin, in contrast to Yeltsin, has always tried to present himself as a figure of calm.
Allan describes Putin's leadership for much of the past 22 years as "an iron fist in a velvet glove".
"Historically, Putin has made few major blunders as a politician," he said.
Referring to the war in Ukraine, he went on: "Putin probably thought President Zelensky would flee Ukraine after the invasion and the Russians would be welcomed with open arms.
"He thought he would be able to claim the Donbas, Luhansk, and Donetsk, as well as solidify his grip on Crimea and see Ukraine demilitarised."
TOUGH-GUY IMAGE
When Allan first travelled to the former Soviet Union, he understood that Russian expectations of their leaders were very different to those of many Westerners.
Explaining Putin's "tough guy" persona, Allan said: "Russian people want the president to be GI Joe. A patriot.
"They want to see him fly a plane, be a martial arts champion.
"For many years, he's done that role extremely well."
While Yeltsin was dismissed at home as a raging drunk, Putin has promoted a clean-living image as a man of action.
He has a black belt in judo, plays ice hockey, and poses for photo opportunities shirtless on a horse while on hunting or fishing trips.
RECENT CHANGES
Allan claims Putin's behaviour has changed significantly in the past month or so.
"He's put a lot of weight on, he's carrying a lot of fat," he said. "Rumours among many of my friends in Russia are that he has colon cancer. Weight gain is often a symptom of treatment.
"Putin has always been a fitness fanatic," he added. "Clearly at the moment, he's not working out. So rumours are swirling in Russia about him having cancer, or early-onset Parkinson's."
However, he says Putin's behaviour and body language now are drastically different.
"He is no longer the confident 'managing director' in charge," he said. "He's a guy who is keeping everyone at a distance."
Referring to Putin's "absurdly long table" he has been pictured at in recent weeks, he said his positioning "at the other end with his back to the wall or window" was as if he was "expecting an attack".
He branded this a symptom of Putin's increasing "paranoia", potentially a sign of someone who has been too isolated throughout the pandemic.
"The weight gain is significant, as is him distancing himself. He keeps everyone on the opposite side of the room from him.
"Clearly, there is something going on in his head. He doesn't want to be around people."
Clearly, there is something going on in his head. He doesn't want to be around people
Allan Pease
In a recent speech, a glowering Putin warned that "the patriots know how to find the traitors," a far cry from the cold, calculating image he used to project.
His sickness, whether physical or mental, could explain his rash actions in Ukraine, Allan believes.
"Putin is 69 now," he said. "He's always been a patriot. If he was going to make a move on Ukraine, with his disease, he may be thinking, 'well damn them, I'm going in'."
He added that the Russian leader likely expected little resistance in Ukraine.
Allan, who travelled to Russia every year for the past three decades before Covid, says he last saw President Putin in 2014 at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
"He seemed the same as he did in 1991," he said. "There has been no fundamental change in his approach or behaviour since communism fell. This change is a recent thing, and it is linked to his bloated face."
On Friday, body language experts claimed Putin's changes indicated he may be extremely ill.
In a recent video, he seemed to have difficulties walking, while he has been noticeably "low-energy" in his press appearances.
On Friday, Putin held a rally in Russia where he shook his fist and appeared a deluded tyrant.
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Russian state TV mysteriously cut away from the president's speech as he was praising his troops in Ukraine, which the Kremlin blamed on a technical glitch.
But with his behaviour becoming ever more unhinged, speculation about Putin's state of mind as well as physical temperament is only likely to increase.
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