Vladimir Putin is well known for performing religious orthodoxy, casting himself as a defender of Christianity. He is also reportedly extremely superstitious, refusing to say the name of deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Russian president is even said to take regular baths in the blood of severed deer antlers, believing it has rejuvenating powers.
On the way back from visiting Mongolia this month, Putin stopped off in the Tuva region of Siberia, "ostensibly to give a lesson in patriotism to schoolchildren", said The Times.
According to Mikhail Zygar, founder of banned Russian opposition television channel TV Dozhd, Putin's real reason for the "risky trip" was to consult shamans. Rumours are rife that he sought their blessing for the use of nuclear weapons, out of fear of "angering the spirits".
Mongolia and Tuva are home to the most powerful shamans in the world, wrote Zygar in Der Spiegel. Putin has made regular trips to Tuva with his former defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who was born there, allegedly to participate in pagan rituals.
But the secretive leader's eclectic interests are far from unusual in his homeland. There is a "deep vein of mysticism, occultism and conspiracy theory in Russian culture", said The Spectator, and more occult faith healers than doctors. Officials are widely rumoured to consult fortune-tellers; Putin allegedly sought the advice of mystics before launching the invasion of Ukraine, who assured him of victory.
Last year Russian state media reported that Kara-ool Dopchun-ool, known as Russia's "supreme shaman", had asked "the sun, the moon and the stars" to protect the Kremlin's troops. | 
