This isn’t the first time Russian president Vladimir Putin has flaunted his manliness for the cameras, and it seems likely that it was staged. Still, I don’t think George W. Bush would have had the guts to take down a tiger. From the Guardian:
While on a visit to a national park to observe how the animals are monitored, a rare Ussuri tiger broke free threatening those in its immediate vicinity. But Putin reportedly leapt to action and shot the creature with a tranquiliser gun.
According to the Interfax news agency, the camera crew from state TV channel Vesti realised the five-year-old tiger had become untied and were rescued by Putin.
“Thanks to the agile and timely action the tiger was immobilised,” Interfax said.
Afterwards, Putin was said to have stroked the animal’s cheek, adding: “She’ll remember us.”
Staged or not, no one doubts that Putin — who’s also a judo champion — is a pretty manly guy. Still, he’s got nothing on American politicians; it’s one thing to tranquilize a defenseless tiger, and quite another to blast a shotgun-toting campaign contributor in the neck.
Not that we Canadians are in any position to talk. Our own prime minister isn’t exactly the toughest guy in the world either. Though he does throw a mean snowball.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Asher Vijay // Sep 2, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Those pictures of Harper are strangely creepy…
2 mark // Sep 3, 2008 at 1:07 am
Yeah, he looks like he really wants to cream some kid with that snowball.
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