[5] Alexander Yelin, a musician known for his work with the Soviet/Russian heavy metal band Aria,[4] wrote the composition and lyrics for the song based on a cynical[3] $300 bet that he would be able to make a popular hit with the right message and without a large budget.

[3][1][note 1] Yelin viewed Putin as the biggest and most admirable generator of news on television, and thus would be the best subject of a song.

[11][12] The singers were written to represent the everyday Russian girl who is surrounded by men who are "drunk, filthy and mean", in a manner similar to an earlier work by Yekaterina Semyonova [ru] in the 1980s who sings about a man who "neither drinks, nor smokes, and always gives flowers" (Чтоб не пил, не курил и цветы всегда дарил).

[20] In 2004, the band Poyushchie vmeste split up, eventually reuniting in 2015 with a new line-up featuring much younger singers, and releasing a newly re-recorded version of "Takogo, kak Putin!".

[22] In the video, Gastello plays an advisor to Putin, with whom he reviews a video featuring the performing singers, who dance seductively in front of an animated Russian flag,[23] moving similarly to Bond girls in the opening sequences of James Bond films.

[5] The song was written two years after Putin's inauguration, riding the wave of Russia's euphoria for a new president who bore nationwide expectations that he would lead the country forward.

[7] Initially, listeners in Russia did not know whether the song expressed humour, admiration, melancholy, or whether it was orchestrated PR.

[26] However, the song became so popular that an official English version[1][15] titled "You Must Be Like Putin" was also recorded and included as the eleventh track of the 2004 album.

[29][30] Putin's image is that of a strong, masculine man, but also purged of vices commonly attributed to men in Russia, such as drunkenness, smoking and recklessness.

[40] In 2002, the song was viewed as bizarre propaganda among Western media outlets,[43] and its ironic undertones were overlooked, as was the case within Russia.

[40] In the midst of the 2011–2013 Russian protests, Alexander Yelin released the anti-Putin song "Nash durdom golosuyet za Putina" (Наш дурдом голосует за Путина; lit.