Putin supported young people wearing kokoshniks.

      Vladimir Putin spoke approvingly of Russian youth wearing head accessories in the form of kokoshniks. He expressed his approval of the emerging trend while addressing an audience at the Valdai forum. The Russian president’s speech at the International Discussion Club took place on Thursday, October 2.

      The Russian leader himself brought up the subject of kokoshniks. He noted that girls and young women have increasingly begun to wear kokoshniks to their gatherings. The president approved the fashion choice, seeing in it the youth’s turn toward national traditions.

      “Someone told me recently that we are kind of witnessing a revival of this Russian tradition: girls, young women come to their events or, if they are out somewhere having fun, to bars and so on, wearing kokoshniks, in Russian outfits. … Despite all attempts to undermine Russian society from within, our opponents are achieving no result, but rather the opposite,” Russian Telegram channels quote Vladimir Putin as saying.

      Bloggers linked the president’s remark to a recent incident at a school in Berezovsky, where a teacher did not allow a girl to wear a hairband in the shape of a kokoshnik to school.

      Marina Akhmedova, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights and editor of the Regnum news agency, is convinced that the head of state knows about that case, which is why he decided to gently voice his opinion on wearing the kokoshnik. “I have a feeling the teacher herself will come wearing one tomorrow,” joked the author of the Telegram blog.

      The head of the gymnasium, Alexey Dorokhin, told reporters that after the controversy an ambulance was called for the teacher — her blood pressure had spiked.