One of the mountains belonging to the Tian Shan mountain range in Kyrgyzstan was named after the Russian leader, along with two other peaks named after Lenin and Communism. The vast mountain ranges are fossil-packed, rocky and rugged faced and used to find it hard to attract climbers. But it changed after the over commercialization of the routes in Nepal and the Alps, the mountains have become an excellent choice for climbers who needed affordable options.(source)
7 He once caught a 21 kg pike while fishing. It was reportedly one of the biggest in the world.
One of his many exploits includes catching a 21 kg pike in a Siberian lake. Putin was holidaying in a remote part of Russia’s Tuva republic in southern Siberia along with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, where he and Medvedev spent more than 24 hours chatting, fishing and swimming together. Apparently, it had take the Russian president over three minutes to reel it in and they made fishcakes with the pike.(source)
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8 Putin helped to put out wildfires in the Russian countryside by co-piloting an aircraft.
When fires in western Russia suffocated Moscow with smog for two weeks, Putin climbed into a firefighting plane and dumped water on two of the hundreds of wildfires. The fires have caused $15 billions worth of damage and left thousands of people homeless. The Russian president also called the soldiers to help the firefighting brigades and went to some of the villages affected by the fire promising the people new homes.(source)
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9 Vladimir Putin released an instructional martial arts DVD called “Let’s Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin”.
Putin, who is also a former Judo champion along with being a black belt, has released the instructional DVD on his birthday. It was made in collaboration between Putin and other Judo fighters, including former world and Olympic champion Yasuhiro Yamashita. The DVD also features Putin talking about the history and philosophy of martial arts. He is also quoted to say that “without sports, it’s impossible to speak of a healthy way of life, about the health of the nation as such”.(source)
10 When Putin went to meet a Persian leopard, it attacked the journalists by scratching one and biting the knee of another, but cuddled quite happily with him.
Putin met the six month old leopard called From, and according to him they’ve both become friends and “decided to restore the population of Persian leopards because of the Olympic Games”. The Persian leopards have gone extinct in the 1970s. However, the animal had reportedly attacked the journalists who went there, but was taken with Putin, as he cuddled it.(source)
