Though religion was not permitted in the Soviet Union, his mother secretly had him baptized as an Orthodox Christian. He remains a practicing member of the Church and delivered a Christmas Eve speech in Moscow in 1999.
Though he was a small-built child and is still a short and slim man, Putin could hold his own in fights thanks to martial arts classes. By the age of 16 he was a top-ranked expert at sambo, a Russian combination of judo and wrestling. He attended a prestigious high school, School 281, which only accepted students with near-perfect grades. The institution was the only one in Russia to stress chemistry, which was Putin's interest. However, he soon gravitated toward liberal arts and biology. Putin worked at the school radio station, where he played music by the Beatles and other Western rock bands. Though he attended parties, he was reportedly more mature than others his age, according to one of his fellow students quoted by Michael Wines in the New York Times. Fascinated with spy movies as a teen, he aspired to become a KGB agent.
At Leningrad State University, Putin was the school's judo champion in 1974. He graduated from the law department in 1975.
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