MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone spearfishing in southern Siberia’s mountains, the latest outdoor exploit for the adventure-loving Russian leader.
Footage released yesterday by Russian state television stations showed Putin steering an inflatable boat and fishing bare-chested with a rod, accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other officials.
“It’s a good catch,” a beaming Putin said, displaying his spoils.
During the trip earlier this week across pristine mountain rivers and lakes near the border with Mongolia, Putin also tried for the first time to fish underwater with a spear gun.
Action camera footage showed Putin moving underwater in a swimsuit and shooting a pike.
“It’s very sly and cautious,” the Russian president said of his prey after getting out.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that the president spent two hours pursuing a pike before finally getting it.
The Russian leader has frequently offered macho images of his sporting life, which has included flying combat jets, riding horses, scuba-diving and riding a horse bare-chested.
A longtime judo master, he now regularly plays ice hockey.
In other televised escapades underlining his love for nature, Putin accompanied a flock of cranes on a motorized hang glider, shot a tiger with a tranquilizer gun, tracked polar bears and released leopards into a wildlife sanctuary.
His go-to show of force comes a day after a Russian court extended probation for opposition leader Alexei Navalny by one year, a sentence that should bar him from running for office until at least 2021.
Navalny, who rose to prominence with his investigations of official corruption, spearheaded a series of anti-corruption protests across Russia this year, the most wide-spread in decades.
He wants to run for president of Russia next year and has been signing up campaign volunteers even though he technically is ineligible as a candidate.
He says banning him from office is illegal and he’s campaigning to put pressure on authorities.
A lawyer by training, Navalny was convicted of fraud in 2013 and 2014 after trials that supporters characterized as politically motivated.
He was given a five-year suspended prison sentence along with 1 1⁄2 years probation this year after a retrial of one of the cases.
The court in Moscow on Friday granted a motion filed by penitentiary officials who asked for Navalny to be kept on probation a year longer, until December 2020.
The officials argued that he has repeatedly violated the terms of his suspended sentence.
Navalny has signed up more than 130,000 volunteers in more than 60 cities across Russia.
Footage released yesterday by Russian state television stations showed Putin steering an inflatable boat and fishing bare-chested with a rod, accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other officials.
“It’s a good catch,” a beaming Putin said, displaying his spoils.
During the trip earlier this week across pristine mountain rivers and lakes near the border with Mongolia, Putin also tried for the first time to fish underwater with a spear gun.
Action camera footage showed Putin moving underwater in a swimsuit and shooting a pike.
“It’s very sly and cautious,” the Russian president said of his prey after getting out.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that the president spent two hours pursuing a pike before finally getting it.
The Russian leader has frequently offered macho images of his sporting life, which has included flying combat jets, riding horses, scuba-diving and riding a horse bare-chested.
A longtime judo master, he now regularly plays ice hockey.
In other televised escapades underlining his love for nature, Putin accompanied a flock of cranes on a motorized hang glider, shot a tiger with a tranquilizer gun, tracked polar bears and released leopards into a wildlife sanctuary.
His go-to show of force comes a day after a Russian court extended probation for opposition leader Alexei Navalny by one year, a sentence that should bar him from running for office until at least 2021.
Navalny, who rose to prominence with his investigations of official corruption, spearheaded a series of anti-corruption protests across Russia this year, the most wide-spread in decades.
He wants to run for president of Russia next year and has been signing up campaign volunteers even though he technically is ineligible as a candidate.
He says banning him from office is illegal and he’s campaigning to put pressure on authorities.
A lawyer by training, Navalny was convicted of fraud in 2013 and 2014 after trials that supporters characterized as politically motivated.
He was given a five-year suspended prison sentence along with 1 1⁄2 years probation this year after a retrial of one of the cases.
The court in Moscow on Friday granted a motion filed by penitentiary officials who asked for Navalny to be kept on probation a year longer, until December 2020.
The officials argued that he has repeatedly violated the terms of his suspended sentence.
Navalny has signed up more than 130,000 volunteers in more than 60 cities across Russia.
