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Russian President Vladimir Putin is know for his bizarre photos ops.
俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京以拍奇怪的照片著称。
In the West these seems crazy.
在西方人眼里，这些照片显得有些疯狂。
They're the type of things we turn into Internet memes. They make great animated gifs.
大家甚至把这些照片变成了各种梗,各种表情包。
There are entire Tumblrs devoted just to photos of "Shirtless Putin Doin' Things"
汤不热网站上还有人专门做“光膀子普京各种开挂”的表情包。
Action figures, showing him riding bears and doing other crazy things.
有光膀子普京化身成动作片角色的，有骑熊的，反正就是各种嗨。
But where we in the U.S. and other countries see this as the crazy antics of an ego maniac,
然而，尽管我们这些外国的吃瓜群众觉得这是个自大的疯子在时不时地输出疯狂的搞笑举动。
in Russia they actually have a very important political purpose.
在俄罗斯政府眼里，这些照片背后实际上都带有非常重要的政治意图。
That's an image that looks like it should be airbrushed onto the side of a van in New Jersey rest area.
“这张照片怕是应该漆在新泽西服务区的面包车上吧。”
So, in Russia, Putin's image is crafted very carefully to make him seem like a public figure that is both powerful and lovable.
话说回来，在俄罗斯，普京的形象都是经过精心设计的，以便让他的公众形象看起来既强大又可爱。
So that is what it says when Putin is kind of interacting with animals or children.
普京与动物或小朋友互动的那些照片都是这个意思。
But he also is very careful in these photos to stage them so that he's powerful:
但是他在这些照片中也会精心地展现他强大的一面。
He's riding the horse, kind of surveying the land around him.
比如这张骑着马，一副视察周围的地形的样子的照片。
Often they show him as if he's stepped into someone else's profession for a day and had incredible success in it.
他们经常都会把他塑造得好像他到别的行业体验了一天就取得了惊人的成就的模样。
On one occasion he appeared as a dentist.
有时他会化身成一名牙医。
He famously had this photo op in the Black Sea where he was shown emerging from the water,
这张著名的照片是他从黑海出水的样子，
carrying two ancient Greek amphorae which are these incredible archeological finds.
他手里提着两个古希腊双耳瓶，都堪称是非常了不起的考古发现呢。
And the initial story was that he had just happened to be swimming and discovered them.
最初的说法是他游泳的时候碰巧发现了那些双耳瓶。
But it quickly came out that in fact they had been planted there for him to discover.
但很快就有人出来说那些瓶子都是事先安排好等着他去发现的。
So the message from all of these is that he is this incredibly impressive individual.
总而言之，所有这些照片都在传递着一条信息，那就是普京是一个非常了不起的人。
But it also has a more simple and direct message,
但这些照片还传递了一个更简单也更直接的信息，
which is: Don't worry, Russia. Putin is healthy and everything is going to be fine.
那就是：俄罗斯，别担心。普京健康着呐，一切都会好起来的。
But the truth is that power in Russia is centralized with Putin to an incredible degree.
然而，事实上，俄罗斯的集权在普京身上达到了惊人的程度。
There is no clear successor in place. It's not at all clear what the government would look like without him.
反正目前还没有明确能够接任普京的人选。对没有他俄罗斯政府变成什么样大家也是懵逼的。
And that makes it pretty scary for people to contemplate what would happen if Putin were suddenly to become seriously ill.
而对于那些思考如果普京突然病重俄罗斯将何去何从这一问题的人来说，这无疑是非常可怕的。
They also reassure Russians that Putin is healthy and strong.
此外，这些照片也给俄罗斯人打了一剂镇定剂，让他们知道普京还很强健。
He is trying to live up to this Russian ideal of the "real man"
普京正在努力实现做一个“真正的人”这一俄罗斯理想，
the person who is strong and macho and impressive and powerful.
成为一个强壮，充满男子汉气概，令人印象深刻并且强大的人。
A lot of these photos are also designed to show how impressive Russia is.
同时，这些照片很多也是为了宣传俄罗斯的地大物博。
When he's hunting that is a reminder of its wealth of wildlife and natural resoures.
比如，普京狩猎的照片就旨在告诉人们俄罗斯有着丰富的野生动物和自然资源。
No one is as popular as Putin. No one is as recognizable. There isn't anyone that has that populist appeal.
没有人比普京更受欢迎。没有人比普京更具辨识度。也没有人拥有普京那样的民众吸引力。
And when he shows that he has these high levels of popularity, that's how he shows the elites, you know, "I got this. You don't need to worry that the country is going to slip from my grasp."
普京向外界展示自己的人气的时候，也是在向精英们传达“我人气高着呢，你们不必担心这个国家会从我手里丢掉。”
And it's also a way of reminding them that there is no one other than Putin.
同时这也是在提醒他们，没有人能与他相提并论。
There is no other figure in Russia who has the same level of elite support and also popular support.
没有人像普京那样能同时受到普通民众和精英阶层的拥戴。
These photos might seem weird and crazy to us.
这些照片在我们眼里或许很奇怪，很疯狂。
But they also tell us a lot about Putin's political strategy and where he stands, both with the Russian public and with Russian elites.
但它们也向我们透露了很多关于普京的政治战略以及他在俄罗斯公众和俄罗斯精英眼中的地位的信息。
