Vladimir Putin, Before and After

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Time for a little Friday fun: it's the Sochi edition of the celebrity before and afters! Because it's almost the weekend, the Olympics are about to wrap up, and nobody in Canada is getting any work done this afternoon, what with the hockey game. So our next subject is 61-year-old Russian president Vladimir Putin. Let's call him Vlad. My friend Jill alerted me to the recent changes in his face, which upon closer inspection are pretty insane and alarming. Let this be a cautionary tale for any males out there….

The before

To kick things off, I found this old pic of a teenage Putin… man, that facial expression started young.

Speaking of which, this is pretty awesome.

At some point during his reign, Putin was apparently considered hot:

Well, look at those biceps, anyway. This also happened:

Of course, being a politician is the number one cause of aging (so much stress; so bad for skin). As the years passed, his face started to look like this au naturel:

This next pic is from 2007. Note the hollow cheeks, sagging skin and sunken under-eye area. (All perfectly normal BTW; the guy was 54 years old here.)

I'm also giving you a side profile view, so you can compare it with what happens a few years later.

The after

The first sign that something was awry was this photo of Vlad with a big bruise and swelling under his eye. Plastic surgery gone wrong? Or is he recovering from blepharoplasty?

Suddenly (and get ready for this), he was spotted with the most inflated cheeks I have EVER seen:

Dude. These even beat out Megan Fox's cheek fillers, which I thought were completely whacko. Not only did he use a crazy, unnecessary amount of filler, but it's also sitting in this big horizontal mass. There's a distinct and obvious drop-off in plumpness under the eyes. Is it because they're actual cheek implants and not hyaluronic acid (which dissolves over time)? Either way, you'd think the president of Russia could afford a better doc.

Here's another freakish shot:

I find his new “look” the most creepy when he does that half smile. Doesn't he look like a little Buddha?

In this shot, his face isn't quite as puffy, but there is still weirdness:

Now we'll look at another front view, with a more serious expression. Notice how his face looks all frozen?

And his lip is doing something very strange. I think he's had Botox around his mouth and most certainly around the eyes/brows and forehead. (Telltale Botox sign: “Spocking,” i.e. that one arching eyebrow.) As for the lower half of his face, it could also be a surgical procedure (a neck tuck?), as his skin used to be much droopier around the mouth.

The side profile is so dramatic that it can't be injections alone:

Now I think it's time to share this photo gem:

Methinks somebody uses the same shoe lifts as Tom Cruise. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The bottom line

Could it BE any more obvious? Vlad's been doing some major tinkering with his face. Guy just divorced his wife of 30 years, too, so it all makes sense. Plastic surgeon David Hidalgo, who was interviewed by Vanity Fair, doesn't doubt the injectable fillers and Botox, but isn't sure about plastic surgery:

“I have not seen any good plastic surgery come out of Russia. A lot of girls come over here with horrendous things we have to straighten out. [Also,] Putin doesn‣t strike me as the type of guy who‣s gonna let somebody put him to sleep.”

Well, that explains the bad filler work. Pro tip: Don't have anything done in Russia.

In the Daily Mail, top doc Michael Prager observed:

“He has perhaps had a little bit too much work to the eyes because he has what we call 'fish eyes' or 'dead eyes'.”

They're even speculating he's had a full face lift. Not sure about that! Personally, I've got no problem with the guy doing minor enhancements… it's just gone much, much too far. In general, I think men need to be VERY cautious with fillers and Botox, as they can give a weird, feminine look (in women, it's the opposite). I do think the neck lift, or whatever it was, really improved his profile.

Have your say

Do you think Vladimir Putin looks better before or after?

What procedures do you think he had done?

How do you feel about men using Botox and fillers?