Vladimir Putin likes to be publicly characterized by a certain macho demeanor. The behavior goes back to wrestling and Russian prison culture.
One Kremlin critic said that Putin and his henchmen embraced "down-to-earth populism" because they wanted to sound like average Russians. Russian prison directors are "above the law, beyond the law," says Svetlana Chunikhina, vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists. Putin hates the modern, Western understanding of personal freedom.