Vladimir Putin braved freezing temperatures for an ice-cold dip as part of the Russian Orthodox Church’s traditional celebration of Epiphany.
Videos and photographs showed the 65-year-old Russian president wearing a sheepskin coat while walking up to a hole that had been cut into the ice of Lake Seliger on Friday.
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Putin stripped to his bathers and walked down some wooden steps into the water, which a cleric had blessed.
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Putin then crossed himself and briefly submerged his entire body under the water to commemorate the baptism of Jesus Christ, as the Russian Orthodox Church does each year on Jan. 19.