He is the only man alive in Russia who understands the predicament facing Vladimir Putin as he prepares to surrender the Kremlin hot seat.

Mikhail Gorbachev's latest career as the unlikely face of Louis Vuitton offers President Putin little comfort, however, and may haunt him in more ways than the immediately obvious.

A recent advertisement featuring the first and last president of the Soviet Union shows a magazine poking out discreetly from his luxury travel bag as Mr Gorbachev looks at a section of the old Berlin Wall from his limousine.

Readers with a magnifying glass and an understanding of Russian discover that the headline concerns the murder of the dissident spy Alexander Litvinenko and reads: "They wanted to give up the suspect for $7,000."

The company and its advertising agency deny any subliminal message and have dismissed the issue as a coincidence. Advertising chic luggage is a major step up from promoting pizza, as Mr Gorbachev memorably did for Pizza Hut in 1997, but it pales against ending the Cold War.

And there is Mr Putin's dilemma. Mr Gorbachev, or "Gorby" as he is still universally known to anyone over 35, struggled to define a role for himself after his resignation and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Admiration abroad for his democratic reforms was counterbalanced by widespread hatred at home for his role in the Soviet collapse as Russians suffered economic chaos and the painful loss of superpower status.

Mr Putin enjoys massive domestic support for presiding over eight years of economic growth and restoring Russia's global standing. But international opinion is increasingly suspicious of the former KGB officer's democratic credentials as civil liberties have been eroded.

Mr Gorbachev ran for president again in 1996 but was humiliated with less than one per cent of the vote. Mr Putin is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term, which he would win by a landslide.

Mr Gorbachev was only 60 when he resigned as head of state, handing over to Boris Yeltsin. Mr Putin is only 55 now, eight years after leading Russia out of the "oligarchic" era of humiliation under Yeltsin.

Like Mr Gorbachev, he must carve a new role but a career in advertising is definitely off the agenda. Mr Putin is striving for what Mr Gorbachev dreamed of, a status as father of the nation.

Mr Putin's United Russia party has made the parliamentary election on Sunday a referendum on his popularity as a prelude to declaring Mr Putin "National Leader", a post unrecognised in the constitution.

Mr Putin himself has declared that an overwhelming victory for his party will give him the "moral authority" to wield power after he leaves the Kremlin in March. Many in Russia believe that he will return as president after a brief interregnum by a loyal puppet.

Mr Gorbachev's face may be in chic fashion magazines but Mr Putin's is in every public building and his name is splashed across election billboards in every city across Russia. It is a trend that makes the elder statesman distinctly uncomfortable, given his long experience of Soviet adulation towards its leaders.

While generally supportive of Mr Putin, Mr Gorbachev declared yesterday that he was "anything but pleased that he has become directly involved in the election campaign". He added: "We are not voting for Putin. We have parliamentary elections."

Mr Gorbachev also declared that Mr Putin was like Leonid Brezhnev, his Soviet predecessor as general secretary, in that both had been lucky to govern in a period of high oil prices.

Mr Putin, who projects an image of youthful vigour, will not enjoy the comparison with the decrepit Mr Brezhnev and the reminder that time catches up with all Kremlin leaders.

Mr Gorbachev, now 76, was once the youthful new face of the Soviet Union. He has recently sought to inspire a new political movement, the Union of Social Democrats of Russia, to encourage a moderate alternative between communism and the "liberal democratic extremes" of rampant capitalism.

Where Louis Vuitton fits on this scale of political values is a question that is unlikely to trouble the rich Russian elite who are enjoying the consumer boom under Mr Putin and want the party to continue.

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