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But then this macho aspect, this playing the fighter pilot,

the fireman, the race car driver, the ice hockey player,

in addition to being the judo, that is all kind of part of an app,

but you try to live up to it. So what's interesting about this is when you can go around and ask people to verify certain parts of, you know, the sort of Putin story.

In the case of ice hockey, Putin didn't know how to skate. So he sought out a very famous Russian ice hockey player in coach,

and asked him to teach him to skate so that he could play ice hockey,

because it's a big combat, you know, match a sport in Russia,

as much as it is in the United States and Canada. So Putin wanted to be proficient.

So each time that he does one of these stage stunts and they're very stage,

he admits it sometimes he comes up with them. He does his homework.

He doesn't just, you know, kind of a peer and, you know, sort of sit in a tank.

He does all of his homework to, you know, know what's going on here.

So he kind of rises to the occasion. He role plays, but he does it with a certain degree of skill.

I'm Cody Poplin, and this is a law fair podcast April 4, 2015.

That was Fiona Hill, you just heard. Co-author of Mr. Putin, operative in the Kremlin, and a senior fellow at Brookings.

With a tenuous ceasefire holding in Ukraine, we asked Fiona onto the show to discuss the man behind the unrest.

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