hello i'm simon whistler you're watching
today i found out and in the video today
we're answering a viewer question
zack l asks why does vladimir putin walk
with one
arm moving and the other stuck at his
side
so while there is no single correct way
to walk most of us have a gate where we
swing
each arm forward when its opposing leg
moves forward likewise
as with the length of the stride which
is generally the same for both legs
the distance of the arm swing is usually
about the same for both
left and right arms while exactly why
humans do this hasn't yet been
definitively proven with the most
popular theory being that while not
essential it's mostly about
improving balance and decreasing angular
momentum of the body
the fact remains that this is how the
vast majority of humans all over the
world
walk but it's not so with vladimir putin
the president of the russian federation
for those who've never seen putin's
rather odd walk when putin walks
his left arm swings freely forward with
his right leg stride
however when his left leg strides
forward his right arm
barely moves at all remaining nearly
still and close to his torso
this has resulted in some idly
speculating that maybe there's some
neurological cause for the gate perhaps
even a sign of putin being in the early
stages of parkinson's disease
reduced arm swing is interestingly an
early indicator of this disease although
it's usually accompanied by tremors or
other such additional indicators as well
others have speculated that erb's palsy
or even a minor stroke might be the
underlying cause
the problem with all of these hypotheses
is that putin not only has the full use
of his right arm and hand for day-to-day
activities like writing eating etc but
even likes to show off his prodigious
judo skills as well as strength in
weightlifting
in both cases the right hand and arm
seemingly show no sign of weakness
tremors etc
combined with the fact that putin's had
this gate for many years without change
this all seemingly rules out the
aforementioned potential causes
so well what's going on well thankfully
as putin himself has never commented on
it as far as we can find
a team of doctors led by disorder
specialist dr bastian bloem
decided to look into the matter
publishing their paper on the subject in
the british medical journal in 2015.
in it they came up with an intriguing
and quite probable hypothesis
as to why putin walks this way in their
paper titled gunslinger's gate a new
cause of unilaterally reduced arms wing
they noted that putin was once a
long-time member of the soviet union
security agency
known as the kgb he was a member from
1975 to 1991.
in fact he eventually rose to the ranked
lieutenant colonel within that
organization
before leaving it during the brief
august coup attempts against president
mikhail gorbachev
showing off their research skills the
doctors dug up the book
kgb alpha team training manual which if
you go read through that manual which is
actually kind of interesting
it contains the following text in
chapter 2 concerning the proper way to
move
it is absolutely necessary to keep your
weapon against the chest or in the right
hand
moving forward should be done with one
side usually the left turned somewhat in
the direction of movement
you should crouch to stay concealed lean
the body forward slightly and keep the
knees bent
while putin forgoes crouching like that
when walking around in public
his gate otherwise very much mimics the
one recommended in the training manual
so presumably his right hand stays at
his side presumably because he's holding
an imaginary gun or is prepared to draw
one when he needs it
in other words perhaps because it was so
grilled into him in training or simply
because he thinks it looks cool when
he's walking around with that so-called
gunslinger's gate
he seems to have chosen to keep the walk
long after his kgb days ended
now on its own this reference in the
training manual doesn't definitively
prove anything
it's still just speculation by the
doctors in question to give more
credence to their hypothesis
the researchers presumed that if it
really was the kgb training that caused
this peculiar walk
putin wouldn't be the only one that
walked around that way thus they
examined the walks of other russian
military and or former kgb officers
finding several russian officials today
that also displayed the seemingly
bizarre walk
most notable among this group are prime
minister dmitry medvedev former
ministers of defense antholy serdikov
and sergey ivanov
and a military commander of high rank
natalie sidderov
like putin ivanov was a kgb official and
thus this seemingly supported the
hypothesis that strict adherents to the
kgb
training led to putin's now a lifelong
habit of walking with one arm more or
less fixed at his side
and his body ever so slightly turned in
addition although not kgb
sidorov was a member of the russian
military and cerdikov had served at
least one year in the soviet army where
this particular type of movement was
similarly taught in all of these cases
these individuals
walks aren't quite as extreme as putins
can be sometimes but they definitely
display the same basic pattern of
movement
the one that doesn't fit the mold
however is medvedev who has no direct
links to the military or intelligence
services but still walks this way at
times
that said in his case he seems to have
very actively been coached to mimic
putin's iconic walk
expressions and even speech patterns
during the process of being groomed to
potentially follow putin as president
which he subsequently did from 2008 to
2012.
of course without confirmation from
putin himself nobody can really know why
he walks this way but given the lack of
any other signs of a neurological issue
that might cause such a gate that the
movement pattern is described well in
the kgb training manual
and that at least some other xkgb
operatives also display a similar walk
this certainly seems like the most
compelling hypothesis that anyone's come
up with so far
so i really hope you found that video
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the archives you can find them
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thank you for watching
you