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The Four Statues in Putin’s Boardroom Tell Us How He Wants To Be Remembered
World leaders are very smart. You don’t fall into a presidency by chance. This means that what they do is very deliberate. And by studying what they do we can learn a lot about how they think, feel, what their values are and how they might act in certain situations. Vladimir Putin is a notoriously closed book, but the four statues in his boardroom with the now infamous long table give us a glimpse into who he is inspired by and where he wants to fit into Russia’s rich and complex history.
Analysing portraits, busts and statues is nothing new
When a new US President sets up the Oval Office, they say a lot with the artwork that they bring with them. Which portraits go on the wall, which busts of famous generals, civil rights activists or figures from history take the prime spots, which are confined to the sidelines and which are removed altogether. Incoming presidents know this and are very deliberate about who and what they choose and the message that they want to communicate.
Barack Obama famously removed a longstanding bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office to replace it with one of Martin Luther King Jr. President Biden has a portrait of Benjamin Franklin next to a moon rock, symbolising his respect for science and…
