President Vladimir Putin yesterday suggested Russia revives the Hero of Labour title, a highly coveted Soviet-era award established in the early years of the USSR to mobilise workers and increase output.

“Of course, I think that it would be good for us to revive the Hero of Labour title, only we need to think, we cannot completely copy the Soviet times,” the 60-year-old President said at a meeting with his 2012 election campaign activists.

Putin, who returned to the Kremlin for a third term in May despite huge protests against his decade-long rule, once famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”.

While a growing number of middle class urbanites are growing disillusioned with the Russian strongman, he is still popular with blue-collar workers.