Russian president Vladimir Putin has admitted that some of his most famous media adventures with wildlife have been carefully staged. But he said they were worthwhile because they drew attention to conservation projects.
His macho appearances with everything from tigers to whales have been a staple of Russian state TV for years, cementing his image as a man of action. They drew mockery from critics who have likened them to Soviet propaganda.
In a rare meeting with a Kremlin critic after his latest wildlife stunt – taking to the skies in a light aircraft with a group of cranes last week – he admitted he had often taken part in staged media exercises.
“Of course, there are excesses. And I am enraged about it,” he told Masha Gessen, a journalist he invited for a meeting in the Kremlin cafeteria after she was sacked from her job editing a travel magazine for refusing to send reporters to cover the crane flight. She wrote an account of her meeting with the president in Bolshoi Gorod magazine. – (Reuters)