Putin forces kids to pass Stalinist fitness tests

Vladimir Putin sees the advantage of exercise and good health, and he has the money and the time to do it.  So he has decided that every other person in the Russia should do the same thing.  He has decided that he knows what's best for everyone, and decided to revive an old Stalinist health plan.

According to myfony.com:

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has called for the revival of the Soviet-era physical evaluation program that required all schoolchildren to pass fitness tests.

Putin, a judo enthusiast and a regular swimmer, said Wednesday that the restoration of GTO, the Russian acronym for Ready for Labor and Defense, would teach children to "to stand up for themselves, their family and, in the final run, the Fatherland." 

GTO, which was introduced in 1931 under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's rule, required all schoolchildren to regularly pass physical training tests. Those managing to qualify would receive silver- or gold-colored badges. 

The program gradually lost its scope and prestige over the years and ceased to exist with the 1991 Soviet collapse. Since then, schools largely have been left on their own regarding physical training standards

 Surely it's a good idea to exercise and stay in shape, but to instigate such a plan shows just out of touch with reality Putin is.  Most people who eat bad do so due to poor education and poverty and choice.  They, as I like to say, have a right to be stupid.

But, when you live in a land where your constitution tells men what laws they can make as opposed to what they cannot make, such is the way it is where you live.