“Of course I am still a peasant working in a field,” he told a Chinese news agency. “Nothing has changed much so far.” But he said he hoped his new-found celebrity would help him snag a wife and disclosed he was considering giving up farming to perform at lucrative corporate events as Mr Putin’s comic double.

“I wish to have a wife and a family,” he said. “And I am also thinking about giving up my job and launching my own show.” Photographs of the farmer show him happily parading through his native village of Luntszyuy, which is said to be extremely remote, wearing a brown suit, plimsolls and a blue polo neck sweater.