At the controls of a hang-glider and dressed in billowing white overalls, Russian President Vladimir Putin took to the skies above Siberia to guide endangered birds on their winter migration path, the Kremlin said yesterday.
In his latest brush with wild nature aimed at burnishing the Russian leader’s action man image, Putin flew above the Yamal peninsula in the far north of Siberia alongside a group of migrating Siberian cranes.
State television broadcast the spectacular images of Putin flying high above Siberia as its top news story but the stunt also risks being mercilessly mocked by increasingly confident oppos-ition bloggers.
The group of Siberian cranes had been raised in captivity at the Kushevat ornithological station on Yamal and Putin’s task in his hang-glider was to pose as a giant bird to guide them on the correct migration route south after their release.
“Let’s quickly make our roles clear – I am the alpha-crane!” a popular cartoon already doing the rounds on the Russian internet showed a caricature Putin telling a group of puzzled-looking cranes.
After failing to attract the cranes in a first flight, Putin managed to pick up a group of five birds on his second flight and helped direct them on their path towards Central Asia.
Putin’s white outfit was designed so he himself looked like a crane while the wings of his motorised hang-glider were black and white – like a giant Siberian crane.
“It is amazing how the birds get used to it,” Putin told state television after landing, still dressed in his pilot’s outfit of helmet and goggles. “They do not fear the hang-glider and they overtook it. They are amazing. It’s a very good feeling.”
Putin told Russian news agencies he had been preparing for the stunt for one-and-a-half years.
Senior pilot Igor Nikitin said Putin had already clocked up 17 hours of hang-glider flying time in training.
It appeared the flight took place on Wednesday evening as Putin stopped off on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok, with the images then broadcast in time for the morning news yesterday.
The Russian President over recent years has made a habit out of meeting some of Russia’s rarest wildlife at close quarters, including an Amur tiger, a snow leopard, a beluga whale and polar bear.
Putin has taken projects to save these species under his own personal patronage, although critics accuse him of being more interested in attractive photo-opportunities than the environment.