“Moving from one foot to another as he does is a ‘bracing ritual’ that can suggest a preparation to fight. His shoulders do a diagonal shoulder-shimmy and his torso bristles, which can suggest a state of aggressive arousal.”
Ms James said Putin looked as though he was “egging himself on”.
She added: “His left elbow also pumps against his ribs at one point, in a self-motivational gesture as though he is egging himself on. His frown looks fixed.
“The side view does show a slightly new behaviour though, which is where his chin, rather than being held up to echo the defiance, is pulled down and into his neck and his top lip appears to pull downward to form a mouth clamp after his words. This looks like a contradictory signal to the other ‘fight’ signals, giving a more incongruent set of messages.”
In his speech, Putin said the West’s “untamed ambitions, arrogance and impunity” are driving “a real war” against Russia, while the Kremlin’s forces fired another cruise missile barrage at Ukraine.
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