Photo Gallery Putin's Wild Side
In the latest of his macho PR stunts, Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped in the Arctic Circle this week to help some orphaned endangered cranes along on their journey south for the winter.
Putin donned a white suit, helmet and goggles before stepping into an ultralight aircraft in a meadow some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.
As loudspeakers played the recorded call of a mother crane, Putin lifted off and a group of orphaned young white Siberian cranes followed, allowing the aircraft to lead them south toward their winter habitat.
The Kremlin says Putin prepared assiduously for a year and a half ahead of the mission.
After the flight, Putin spoke with ornithologists around a campfire.
The Russian strongman's forays into his country's seemingly endless wilderness for photo opportunities have become legendary. In this photo from 2010, he poses with a crossbow during a scientific expedition on whales in the North Sea.
On that mission Putin shot a dart at a grey whale from the rubber boat to get material for a skin analysis. In choppy water, it took four tries to hit his target.
Naturally, reporters are invited to Putin's outings, which present him as a robust outdoorsman.
While most of these photo ops have been popular with the Russian people, they weren't impressed when he "discovered" two ancient urns while scuba diving in the Black Sea in 2010.
Then, during that summer's forest fires south of Moscow, the leader personally manned a firefighting jet (from the co-pilot's seat) to help with the disaster.
Here, Putin poses as a hardened outdoorsmen in Siberia in 2009.
In Aug. 2007, Putin was photographed fishing along the Mongolian border with Prince Albert II.
Just days later he was photographed fishing alone. The topless shot has become one of his most famous nature images.
He has also been snapped topless with firearms...
...and on horseback.
Not even deep water could frighten Putin. In Aug. 2009 he travelled to the depths of Lake Baikal in a miniature submarine.
Putin even used a tranquilizer gun on a Siberian tiger in 2008, purely for research purposes, of course.
In April 2010 he assisted with polar bear research too.
The Judo black belt prefers to look tough, but sometimes he shows his tender side too. In the summer of 2010, for example, he helped feed this elk calf from a bottle.
