In the present article the biographical portrait of Wladimir Putin is examined in Spiegel Biografie 5/17 as part of a political discourse analysis (PDA), the subdiscipline of critical discourse analysis (CDA).The analysis comprises 31 texts: press comments, interviews, diary excerpts and speeches. The objectives of the analysis are based on two aspects: the use of specific language resources in discourse fragments (texts) and their potential impact on readers in different contexts. The use of various language resources is analyzed at the lexicalsemantic and pragmatic level. The analysis shows that the political biography can be regarded as a model for the discursive profiling of politicians. The use of certain positively and negatively charged key words and phrases, pronouns and verbs creates a discursive model in which the affection of the supporters is opposed to the criticism of the opponents. Keywords: mirror biography; political discourse analysis; critical discourse analysis; discourse fragments; linguistic resources; discursive profile building.