Russian President Vladimir Putin has seemingly taken rumours of him having “small man syndrome” to heart – because he's been snapped wearing massive heels in public. For years, UK officials, politicians and more have poked fun at Putin for being, well . . . short. And while all of the comments have seemingly been based upon true stories, it seems as though Putin's ego was hurt by them.
Claims of a 'Napoleon complex'
Back in February 2023, when Russia first invaded Ukraine, Conservative MP Julian Lewis claimed, during a question in the House of Commons, that Putin was “firmly in the grip of small man syndrome”. He also said that Putin had a “Napoleon complex”. Lewis said that this could be the reason why Putin ordered his troops to take to the streets of Ukraine.
And then former Labour leader Brown, who served as the UK's Chancellor from 1997 to 2007 under then-PM Tony Blair, shed some light on the realities of this rumour. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph's Celia Walden, he recalled a meeting between the pair in 2006. He said: “I first met Putin in 2006 at the Kremlin, when I was still Chancellor. And I was put in a very low seat so that I was looking up at him. He’s certainly a relatively small man, and he wears these stacked heels.
“Anyway, that day he took out these index cards, and proceeded to read out all this information he had about me, as though he wanted to prove that he knew more about me than I knew about myself. So when people say that Putin’s changed and is only now threatening, I can tell you that he was threatening me even then.”
Heels spotted during state meeting
Well, those “stacked heels” are back, after they were seen during a meeting of the Russian State Council Presidium yesterday. One very stark image shows Putin around a table with some of his officials – but under the table can be seen Putin's feet wearing smart-looking shoes with MASSIVE heels on, which looks like they're around two to three inches high.
And just hours later, he was seen during a visit to Buryat State University in Siberia . . . but only his top half was snapped, with no under-the-table images shown to the public. While there, he met with urban environment and spatial development planners for a rather lacklustre meeting where he opened up on a life-changing moment to a mystery city during his childhood.
Putin's remarks on city planning
He said: “As many of you know, I was born and raised in Leningrad. And I remember going to a competition as a teenager – I will not name the city – in a fairly large city. I had barely left Leningrad before that. I arrived, stepped out onto the station square, and was absolutely speechless.
“I could never have imagined cities like that. They had plenty of buildings, but there was no real city – just a chaotic sprawl of development. It took me a while to work out why it was so. The thing is, I simply grew up in Leningrad, in the city centre, and I had absorbed that harmony since childhood.
“I assumed all cities were like that. Only later did I realise how important that harmony, etched in stone, really is. It shapes a person’s way of thinking, even their cultural DNA. That’s how significant your work is.”
