Russia's Vladimir Putin saves the day as a martial arts superhero in a comic strip spreading on the Russian Internet, where he teams up with bearskin-wearing sidekick Dmitry Medvedev. The comic strip, apparently the first in a series about Super Putin, Man Like Any Other is set in Moscow "one year before the end of the world."



Russia will choose its next president in 2012 and observers have their eyes peeled for any indication of whether current President Medvedev or Prime Minister Putin will seek the six-year-term as head of the country. Although one of the strip's creators said it was drawn by pro bono artists, some Internet users hinted that it may be a part of a behind-the-scenes campaign or was even commissioned by the Kremlin.

With a plot line resembling the film Speed, the strip shows a kimono-wearing Putinu00a0-- described as a man "with a Nordic character"u00a0-- save a busload of people from a bomb blast. The strip pokes fun at Putin's judo hobby and Medvedev's penchant for technological gadgets. The strip's writer Sergei Kalenik said it took two weeks to create and was not a paid project. "We wanted to stir Russia's depressing political scene and create some dialogue," he said.u00a0