Putin has gone fishing

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin stripped to his waist to brave the cold waters of a mountain lake as part of a three-day fishing and hunting trip in the Siberian wilderness, the Kremlin said.

Putin, 64, is renowned for his strong-man publicity stunts, which have contributed to his sky-high popularity ratings.

The trip comes eight months before Russia’s presidential election next March and, although he has yet to announce his candidacy, Putin is widely expected to run and to win comfortably.

The presidential hunting and fishing expedition took place last week from August 1-3 in the republic of Tyva in southern Siberia on the Mongolian border, some 3 700km east of Moscow.

Pictures and video footage released by the Kremlin yesterday showed Putin – who is also a keen practitioner of martial arts and ice hockey – spear fishing, swimming and sunbathing alongside his Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu.

“The water in the lake doesn’t get warmer than 17 degrees, but this didn’t stop the president from going for a swim,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

“He went hunting underwater with a mask and snorkel … The president chased after one pike for two hours, there was no way he could shoot it, but in the end he got what he wanted.” – Reuters