This picture of Putin riding a bear was indeed generated from the original picture of Putin riding a horse while on vacation in Siberia.
Many people argue that Putin actually rode 9n bear to uphold an old Russian tradition of “Bear Cavalry”. Bear calvary – the men that served on the frontiers of the Russia Empire (especially in the Siberia) and they traditionally rode not on horses, but on bears.
In their words, members of the “Bear Cavalry” were chosen from elites soldiers all over Russia and each one of them would ride their own bear. However the bear wasn’t given to them. They had to track down and tame a bear just like cowboys in USA did with a horse. And the way to tame the bear was “Bear Wrestling” and it had 90% mortality on the part of the humans.
But once a candidate has beaten a bear in a wrestling match he became member of the “Bear Cavalry”. This unit fought in many wars and even in the WW1 and the Russian Civil War (on the side of the anti-communist forces) but when the Reds won the “Bear Cavalry” was (officially) disbanded.
The above statement is their argument.
No! Putin was not riding on bear he had beaten in wrestling. People only replaced the horse with bear since it “the bear” is Russia’s national symbol.
