Putin introduces Stalin-style excercise program for all Russians

Fitness Firstki! Putin introduces Stalin-style 'Ready for Labour and Defense' exercise program to get Russians into shape




Speaking in the Kremlin on Monday, Putin said that reinstating the plan, first introduced in the 1930s under Joseph Stalin and known in Russia by the acronym GTO, would ‘pay homage to our national historical traditions’.

During the Soviet days, Russians of all ages were expected to participate in GTO.

In the final years of high school education, teenagers were enlisted in the Strength and Courage-programme, where they would undergo basic military training.

Men aged 40 to 50, and women aged 35-55, would take part in the Vigor and Health-programme, and local branches of GTO would hold their own annual championships.

This week Putin said the leftover Sochi funds support sports venues and promote healthy lifestyles among Russians from the age of six.


People's (healthy) President: Vladimir Putin, pictured riding a horse during during his holidays in Southern Siberia, wants to encourage his people to exercise

‘The Olympics and Paralympics have demonstrated that we are again becoming one of the leaders in global sports,’ Putin said, after his country hosted the $50-billion games.

Putin frequently harks back to the Soviet era to appeal to nostalgic Russians, and the move coincides with the recent annexation of Crimea.



Bioth the U.S. and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia over the move, even excluding Putin from the G8 group.

However, the annexation of Crimea has boosted Putin's popularity at home, where almost half of Russians approve the move, according to a poll by the independent Levada Center published earlier this month.

Putin's own approval ratings were at 72 per cent, up from 65 per cent at the beginning of the year, according to another poll published by Levada this month.

The president has been seeking to increase Russians' life expectancy and stem a demographic decline that has seen the population fall to below 142 million in 2011 from 148.6 million in 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed.

The Russian president leads by example, and has even released released an instructional judo DVD called 'Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin'.

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INTERESTING. Wonder if he isn't preparing a nation of footfit-soldiers...
I wonder how we would fare if push came to shove. Are we a nation of fit warriors? Could we actually kick ass, or no??

 

if putin is coming after the USA he won't do it with foot/fit soldiers...he played nice to get the olympic games to russia...i wouldn't expect him to continue...it will be a slow build but someone needs to pay close attention to this man

 

Bliss,Mussolini did the same thing like Putin did in the 1930's.

 

I don't think the Russian military or economy has the capacity to wage a large-scale war. The Afghanistan and Chechen campaigns have already cost them dearly. I would expect them to use their energy generation capacity as a bargaining chip and leverage against the EU, while trying to reassure the USA that any aggressive moves will be limited to strategically insignificant areas that are historically 'Russian'. Great nations always abuse their smaller, weaker neighbors. The US in this hemisphere, the EU in African and the Middle East, the Russians in Central Asia and the East Asian empires in Southeast Asia. Injustice seems to be the one thing the human race has in common.