Vladimir Putin has gone from being a lieutenant colonel in the KGB to the president of Russia, but besides the fact that he is one of the longest-serving European leaders, there isn't much that is known about the Russian politician. We know that he is an authoritarian leader and a suppresser of democracy, but what else is there to know about this controversial world leader? Does he have hobbies? What is his favorite color? Does he secretly like bunnies? We will probably never get answers to those questions, but let's focus on simpler things. Here's what Vladimir Putin actually eats in a day.
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00:00For a prominent world leader, Vladimir Putin is something of a mystery.
00:05Aside from his longstanding position of authority in Russia, not much is known
00:09about the real Putin, and that extends to his eating habits. Here's what we do know.
00:15For centuries, every leader who's been worried about their safety has employed somebody to
00:19taste or test the food they eat to safeguard against assassination. Roman emperors did it,
00:25dictators have done it, even a president or two has done it.
00:28Come on, relax, what's the worst you could do? Feed us poison! I think you're being a bit
00:35paranoid." No surprise, then, that Putin's got a food taster, too. Everything placed in front
00:40of the Russian president has been tried and tested by someone whose job it is to take a hit
00:45should someone decide to spark a third world war by killing him. As Putin's actions have become more
00:50and more controversial over the last few years, this isn't so much paranoia as it is a sensible
00:56matter of safety. According to Anya von Bremsen, a contributor to Food & Wine, Russians of the
01:02Soviet generation adore ice cream. She says,
01:06"...we all ate it in winter, even though our parents forbade it because of the cold."
01:10That seems to extend to Putin, too. Time and again, ice cream, specifically pistachio ice
01:16cream, has topped the list of his favorite foods. Putin has treated other world leaders to ice
01:21cream during public appearances and even gifted it to Chinese President Xi Jinping,
01:26which, according to Russia Today, led to Russian ice cream craze in China.
01:32Putin's actual eating habits are a little hard to get a firm grasp on,
01:35since the reports about them are not entirely verifiable. For example,
01:40we're told that Putin likes to eat healthy food, including tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce,
01:45and avoids sweets. He prefers fish, but his favorite meat is mutton.
01:49All that information comes from the former official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party,
01:54Pravda, which was itself reporting on Putin's own words.
01:58"...it just seems so hard to believe."
02:00How can he prefer fish when his favorite meat is mutton? What kind of list is tomatoes,
02:04cucumbers, and lettuce? Does he really avoid sweets, considering how much he loves ice cream?
02:10Perhaps the only halfway convincing fact in Pravda's report is that, according to his then-wife,
02:15Putin believed women must do all the work in the home,
02:18and that they shouldn't be praised so as not to spoil them.
02:22It's always fascinating to learn the morning habits of various world leaders.
02:26Pope Francis begins the day before dawn and eats a simple breakfast after prayers.
02:31President Trump doesn't eat breakfast at all, and Putin begins his day quite leisurely indeed.
02:37He wakes up late enough that breakfast is usually served at noon.
02:40On the menu tends to be a large omelet or a bowl of porridge,
02:44with quail eggs and a glass of fruit juice on the side.
02:47Putin is also partial to a cup of coffee in the morning, right after breakfast.
02:51Of course, his is served to him and there are courtiers involved, so it's not entirely
02:56regular Joe stuff, but he has shown up at an actual coffee shop from time to time.
03:01Shortly after his coffee, he'll keep his job waiting just a bit longer while he
03:05spends some time in the gym and watches the news.
03:08Putin also sometimes likes to eat steaks for breakfast,
03:11according to a display for the Media RT broadcast in 2015. The Russian president
03:16took a trip to the gym with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev before retiring to grill some steaks.
03:22The video was released shortly after a dip in Putin's ratings,
03:26so it was likely more photo-op than typical meal.
03:30According to Putin himself, he enjoys trying local cuisine when he's traveling,
03:34and will eat fruit and drink kefir, a type of fermented milk, when he can.
03:39Otherwise, he tends not to eat in the afternoon at all,
03:42and often skips dinner because of his busy schedule. Kefir, funnily enough,
03:46is one of the few things that does seem to keep cropping up in varying reports on Putin's diet.
03:52The yogurt-like drink has been spotted in media appearances, and according to his now
03:56ex-wife Lyudmila Putina, the way to get Vladimir to listen to her was to wait at
04:01home with a glass of it on the kitchen table, ready and waiting.
04:05The first president of post-Soviet Russia, Boris Yeltsin, was a notorious drinker,
04:10to the point of embarrassment at times. This, as well as stereotypes about Russians and drinking,
04:15are most likely the reasons for Putin's aversion to alcohol. Some reports claim
04:20that he only drinks at formal receptions, while others suggest that Putin does like
04:24a drink every now and then. Some stories claim German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Putin
04:29send each other German beer on the regular.
04:32Beer me, bitter!
04:34Here you go.
04:35As they say in Ferris Bueller.
04:37Dankeschön.
04:38Don't expect to see him downing vodka anytime soon, though, no matter what the stereotypes may say.
04:44The alcoholism epidemic in Russia is fueled by this stuff,
04:47to the extent that the Moscow Times described it as Putin's worst enemy.
04:52A good way to get a grasp of what sort of thing Putin might eat on more formal occasions
04:57is to take a look at some of the menus from previous events and dinners.
05:01During a lunch at Potvoyer, a restaurant in St. Petersburg, he ate fish soup,
05:06followed by cold cuts, smoked sturgeon with lemon and butter, then a range of desserts.
05:11At a 2008 dinner between him and then-U.S. President George W. Bush,
05:15the two leaders dined on venison filet with marinated mushrooms, veal tenderloin with
05:20baked potato, salmon and crab kalebiak, and finally, berry pie with ice cream.
05:26At another dinner meeting between Putin and Bush in 2006, they ate a salad of tomatoes
05:31with 50-year-old balsamic vinegar, crawfish with gooseberry marmalade,
05:35olati with caviar, whitefish, steak, and strawberry ice cream.
05:40So while Russia may be known as a country of austere simplicity, and Putin may project
05:45an image of tough-guy relatability, the guy's not afraid to live in luxury sometimes.
05:56you