RUSSIA/FILE: Critics of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin say in blogs a wild Siberian tiger stunned by a gun-wielding Putin in the far eastern taiga several years ago was borrowed from a zoo

Record ID: 727324

  • Title: RUSSIA/FILE: Critics of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin say in blogs a wild Siberian tiger stunned by a gun-wielding Putin in the far eastern taiga several years ago was borrowed from a zoo
  • Date: 17th March 2012
  • Summary: TIGER PHOTOGRAPH ON WALL
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA415CO328W4154V3CP8HHG252F
  • Story Text: Kremlin critics took aim at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's action-man image this week, saying they had unmasked one of the 59-year-old's most notorious stunts as an elaborate set-up.
    Putin was feted by Russian media on in August 2008 for saving a television crew from attack by an Amur tiger in the wilds of the Far East. He apparently saved the crew by sedating the giant cat with a tranquillizer gun, the country's main television station said then.
    Anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who uses his popular blog to publicise official misdeeds, said the wild tigress sat in a trap for hours before Putin arrived clad in camouflage and army boots on a visit to Russia's Ussuri national park in 2008.
    Putin opponents contend the wild Siberian tiger stunned by the gun-wielding Putin was in fact borrowed from a zoo. They say the animal, an endangered breed of Amur tiger, likely died shortly after, replaced in followup state media reports by another beast altogether.
    Critics published photographs of tigers in an enclosure claiming one of them was a tigress borrowed from the Khabarovsk zoo in the Russian far East. Bloggers pointed out characteristic stripes on the alleged zoo tiger's pelt and the tiger immobilised by Putin in a video posted on his official website, claiming those tigers were evidently identical.
    LiveJournal blogger Bigcats.ru cited a biologist as saying tigers are rarely left in a researcher trap for over two hours, and the animal's calm demeanour in the face of surrounding camera crews pointed to domestication in a zoo.
    The blogger said photographs prove the tiger sedated by Putin, who is shown on video placing a satellite tracking collar on the big cat, and the tiger which government tiger tracking websites later showed as the one Putin tagged, were separate beasts.
    Some biologists say it was well known for years that the immobilized tigress was borrowed from a zoo.
    Nikolai Formozov, biologist from Moscow State University thinks it was all done on purpose to provide funding from the state budget by attracting the prime minister to the tiger rescue and tracking project.
    "This pelt drawing which tigers have is like our fingerprint. This helps to particularly identify them, the photo traps are being installed especially for the photo identification, in order to recognise and to distinguish one tiger from another by the black stripe drawing. So these are obvious things, and in fact I can not understand what those specialists who organised that reckless scheme were thinking. Actually, I would like to address the scientific society with the following: it's good to earn money, but some money stinks," Formozov told Reuters.
    He doubts however that the tigress was killed as some bloggers are saying.
    "As far as I know that tigress wasn't killed, she quietly got back (to the zoo). Recently they said from the Khabarovsk zoo that she was sent to another zoo, so it's quite possible. There was some uncertainty and she was in some dangerous situations, because all those people have done it (immobilizing) for the first time then, but it looks like she didn't die," Formozov added.
    Some environmentalists however said there were not enough evidence that the tigress was borrowed from a zoo.
    Director of World Wide Fund fo nature (WWF) Russia Igor Chestin said Putin might have not known the tigress was borrowed. However it was not not the first time Putin was involved in environmental projects which evoke harsh criticism by environmentalists.
    "Well, I think it could have happened anytime, and as I said a year ago, we came up with a criticism but it was not a criticism against the prime minister (Vladimir Putin) because I don't think he is taking any of those decisions. These are the scientists who are responsible for the operation, they get the permits, they organise all the expeditions and all the field work. So they have the full responsibility," Chestin said.
    "I don't think he (Vladimir Putin) would be interested in immobilizing an animal taken from the zoo, if he knew that, because it doesn't make any sense. I can say that it's... my impression is that personally really loves the wildlife, especially the big cats, and I think if that story comes true some people would have many troubles," Chestin added.
    The allegations echoed controversy last year when Putin's spokesman admitted that his discovery of two ancient Greek amphorae on a dive in the Black Sea was staged.
    Bloggers' success in casting doubt over Kremlin-friendly state TV coverage of Putin helped fuel anger over his 12-year dominance of politics since becoming president in 2000.
    His mainly stunts -- piloting a fighter jet, shooting darts at whales and bobsledding -- were widely mocked in satirical posters brought by protesters to thousand-strong opposition rallies ahead of this month's presidential vote.
    The former KGB spy, who cultivated a macho image during his eight years as the Kremlin chief, was shown striding through the taiga in camouflage and desert boots before grappling with the feline foe.
    He helped measure the tiger's incisors before placing a satellite transmitter around the neck of the predator, which can weigh up to 450 kg (1,000 lb) and measure around ten feet (three metres) from nose to the tip of the tail.
    The Amur tiger, the world's biggest wild cat, has recently pounced back from the brink of extinction to hit its highest population level for the last 100 years to an estimated 450 to 500 specimen, environmentalists say.
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