The paper is concerned with the study of acting Russian politicians’ image (V. V. Putin, D. A. Medvedev, V. V. Zhirinovsky, G. A. Zuganov, M. Prokhorov) in view of Irkutsk region citizens. Emotional and rational aspects of each image are considered. Using the method of semantic differential strong and weak points of particular Russian politicians’ images are revealed. The profiles of these politicians are compared to the profiles of the politicians of the past (I. V. Stalin and B. N. Yeltzin) and to the image of an ideal national leader. It is shown that the image of V. V. Putin is the closest to the image of an ideal leader on key semantic scales in the eyes of the Irkutsk region citizens.