Putin shoots tiger, slays metaphor

ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images Is there anything that Russian prime minister and all-around Nietzschean superman Vladimir Putin can’t do? Putin was in the Russian far-east on Monday for a photo-op showcasing efforts to protect endangered Siberian tigers. As if the image of Putin walking through the forest in camouflage carrying a rifle wasn’t enough, Putin apparently ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
592878_080902_tiger5.jpg
592878_080902_tiger5.jpg

ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images

ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images

Is there anything that Russian prime minister and all-around Nietzschean superman Vladimir Putin can’t do? Putin was in the Russian far-east on Monday for a photo-op showcasing efforts to protect endangered Siberian tigers. As if the image of Putin walking through the forest in camouflage carrying a rifle wasn’t enough, Putin apparently also sedated a tiger that had escaped by shooting it with a tranqualizer dart, saving some hapless journalists from being devoured. Or at least that’s how those journalists reported it. The video evidence is a bit vague.

Is it too late to name the tiger Mikheil?

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Russia

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