Check out this short clip of Russian president Vladimir Putin train with the Olympic Judo team in Sochi.
Vladimir Putin has been a fixture, not just in the MMA world, but in traditional martial arts as well. The longtime Russian president congratulated Fedor Emelianenko shortly following the former champ's return to MMA at Rizin's New Year's Eve extravaganza, and was recently filmed at a training session alongside the Russian Olympic Judo team.
Following the training session in Sochi, Putin granted the team's Italian head coach Ezio Gamba Russian citizenship.
"Today, I spoke over the telephone with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, for quite a while, on working matters, but I also told him: 'you know, your citizen, Ezio Gamba, works here in Russia, he brought our team to a wonderful result in 2012, to excellent success at the Olympic games, to the best result in the history of Olympic games," Putin said.