To my eternal shame, and probably dashing forever my hopes of ever being given a visa to re-enter Russia, I forgot to honour President Vladimir Putin’s 53rd birthday on Friday.

Never mind, The Times said it better than I ever could:

For all his diminutive stature (and thinning hair and slackening jowls), there is more than a whiff of James Bond about the Russian President, and for his first four years in power his people loved him for it.

Sadly, as The Times go on to report, the Russian people don’t seem to love him quite as much as they used to. Rather like James Bond, really.