He told The Sun on Sunday: “We need to show the Russians the horrific nature of the regime they are backing in terms they cannot fail to understand.
“They find themselves in a league of super-villains.”
Our investigation takes a closer look at pictures from Putin's past that strike an uncanny resemblance to famous James Bond baddies.
From cat-cradling Blofeld to dead shot Scaramanga, it's hard to tell apart a posing Putin from a scheming villain bent on world domination.
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Putin's pussy looked at ease as he inspected construction works in 2015, and the president's sinister stare likens him to evil mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the 1967 Bond classic You Only Live Twice
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Here Putin plunges into the Black Sea inside a C-Explorer 3 submarine, possibly to gain access to megalomaniac Karl Stromberg's underwater lair (right) - dubbed 'Atlantis' in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me
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Putin often poses with pistols and here looks like Christopher Lee's portrayal of murderous marksman Francisco Scaramanga as he prepares to duel 007 in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
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A 2009 snap of the president floundering in Siberian waters seems identical to a scene from The Spy Who Loved Me after giant metal mouthed Jaws kills a shark
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The Russian president holds a glass during a reception at the Kremlin last year, glaring from the corner of his eye like Auric Goldfinger
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Even Goldfinger's hat-throwing henchman Oddjob from the 1964 film could pass as Putin's twin as they stare out of car windows
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This file picture of the Russian leader from 2000 shows him looking through the periscope of a Karelia submarine, not unlike Moonraker's (1979) super-villain Hugo Drax on his space station
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Taking a phone call during his during his 2012 election campaign, Putin bears a striking resemblance to Charles Grey's 1971 version of Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever
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Putin dons traditional Russian naval gear and again resembles a version of scheming madman Blofeld in Oh Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
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It's hard to tell apart so-called 'super-villain' Vladimir Putin (left) and the leader of the shady organisation SPECTRE in these pictures
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A topless Vlad fishing in the Khemchik River in 2007 and SPECTRE assassin Red Grant in the 1963 movie From Russia With Love could be mistaken for brothers
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The Russian top dog and sharpshooter Scaramanga both raise a glass
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Double agent Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) targets Bond with an AK47 in GoldenEye (1995), while Putin takes aim with an electric AK at a shooting gallery (left)
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Spot the difference between a pondering Putin and poker playing villain Le Chiffre from Casino Royale (2006)
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SPECTRE 'Number 2' baddie Emilio Largo wears a scuba kit in Thunderball (1965) and likens the Russian leader in a wet-suit
