Vladimir Putin cries at election rally (VIDEO)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ripped a page from American lawmaker John Boehner’s playbook on Sunday when he shed tears during an early victory party to celebrate his winning back the Russian presidency.  

Business Insider spotted the Russian presidential candidate’s tears in this video of Putin at a celebratory rally.

While the tears are a bit out of character for the controversial Russian leader better known for shedding his top, they’re quite the norm for Boehner, a Republican from Ohio and speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

YouTube alone holds hundreds of videos that have captured Boehner crying on 60 Minutes, at an event for Arizona lawmaker Gabby Giffords and during a speech in front of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Boehner is so well known for crying that even Saturday Night Live has poked fun at Boehner for his tendency to shed tears. 

Putin, meanwhile, is just starting to show his softer side.

He is more frequently photographed shirtless and often wielding a weapon. Reuters has even created a slideshow to chronicle the longtime Russian leader’s macho image.

It is of course possible that Putin’s tears aren’t all tears of joy.

While returns indicate Putin won Russia's presidential election, accusations of election violations already are flying and post-election opposition rallies already are in the works.

 "These elections are not free … that's why we'll have protests tomorrow," Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Putin prime minister who has since joined the opposition told the Associated Press. "We will not recognize the president as legitimate."

Putin, currently Russia's prime minister, is set to begin what will become his third term as Russia’s president.

And those tears Putin shed Sunday? They were real, but a Putin spokesman told Reuters they were caused by the biting wind.