Vladimir Putin is an unlikely hero for an action thriller, but the one-time spy who failed to shine in his one KGB posting in Berlin has a new image to contend with - as Russia's answer to 007.
A new thriller, written by a Latvian author for the Russian market, depicts the authoritarian President as a post-Soviet version of James Bond, personally hunting down and assassinating Chechen rebel leaders while doing his bit for world peace.
The novel, yet to be published in Moscow, is already the topic of fierce debate as pundits evaluate the latest offering to the personality cult that now surrounds Putin. President, by Aleksandr Olbik, is a fictitious take on Putin which casts him as Russia's saviour from Chechen terrorists.
'What I wrote is a literary version of the events that could have occurred,' Olbik said. 'The former Soviet Union has not had a political leader like Putin for a long time. Russia needs a strong leader because we have strong enemies.'
The book explains away Putin's unpopular refusal to leave his weekend dacha when the Kursk submarine sank in August 2000, killing 118 crew. Olbik suggests that Putin was challenged to a duel by Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader reportedly assassinated by the Federal Security Services earlier this year. Putin travelled to Chechnya to kill the enemy of the state, but was wounded, and hence was unable to comfort the Kursk families.
Olbik writes: 'His thoughts came to a letter. It was an ordinary page from a school notebook, on which there were written, with some mistakes, only 25 words. But he will remember them all his life. "Putin: it is me who you want to catch. Be a man. Try to do it with your own hands, and then we will see on which side Allah is on."'
Olbik has been attacked for his glowing depiction of a national hero by Moscow's biggest selling daily, Komsomolskaya Pravda.
He angrily refutes suggestions that he wrote the book at Putin's request, adding that he has written to Putin's press attaché to inform him of the publication date, their only contact to date.
Olbik also insists that the Duma's Security Committee has been asked to assess whether he can be permitted to use Putin's name and whether the novel discloses 'state secrets'. Olbik adds: 'I am not saying that [the events of the book] were so; only Putin can say if they really happened or not.'
President is the latest homage to Putin, who is increasingly idolised by voters. Two students were recently forced to close Bar Putin, in Chelyabinsk after local officials declared that the name had been used without permission. He has also been praised in a pop song.
Sergei Markov, director of the Russian Institute of Political Studies, said: 'Putin has become so popular that he has become a resource for mass culture. Thatcher and Reagan had a similar appeal.'
The Kremlin is said to fear that the cult of personality smacks of the days of the old Soviet tyrants.
Andrei Riabov, of Moscow's Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: 'There is now a strange phenomenon where you can attack presidential policy, but not Putin. For the people, he is about expectations.'
