Putin catches festival spirit

Russian President Vladimir Putin showed the lighter side of his character when he attended a midsummer festival in the Tatarstan region.

Donning a colourful local hat, he got into the spirit of the Sabantuy celebration, dancing and engaging in traditional games, as well as taking a drink with Second World War veterans.

Tatarstan, a mainly Muslim region with a proud history of opposition to Moscow rule, is now held up as a model of how Russia's various peoples can live together in peace.

Putin toured the festival in a traditional Tatar hat

A shot of vodka, wartime-style, with Tatar President Mintimer Shaymiyev and war veterans

By tradition, first-timers at the Shabantuy must take part in the dancing

One of the younger dancers receives a prize from the president

Putin ducks into a tub of milk in an effort to extract a coin with his teeth

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.