Oh nyet! My newborn looks like Vladimir Putin.

I know the little guy isn't supposed to look like me or his dad right away, but this is still alarming

A mother finds that her son looks curiously like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(Image credit: Illustration by Jackie Friedman | Images courtesy Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, iStock)

It's week 20-something of my pregnancy and I'm staring at a 3D-sonogram image of my unborn son's head. He looks stern and Slavic, which perhaps isn't surprising when you consider that his mother's ancestors are mainly robust peasants from the fringes of the Russian empire. But strangely his face doesn't resemble anyone — alive or recently dead — he's related to. The friendly sonographer pats my belly and assures me that this is normal. Give the poor chap a chance to put some fat on his skull.

And then he was born. There's the old adage that all new babies look like Winston Churchill, which helps sooth moms and dads whose kids pop out looking more like a jowly, cigar-puffing British prime minister than either of them. In fact, our son turned up looking like everyone's favorite autocrat, Vladimir Putin, earning him his very first nickname: Vlad.

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Ruth Margolis
Ruth ​Margolis is a British ​journalist living in the U.S. Her work has appeared in ​The Guardian, ​The ​Daily Telegraph and BBCAmerica.com.