Birdman Putin flies with rare cranes over Siberia

At the controls of a powered hang-glider and dressed in billowing white overalls, Russian President Vladimir Putin took to the skies above Siberia to guide endangered birds on their winter migration path, the Kremlin said Thursday. In his latest brush with wild nature aimed at burnishing the Russian leader's action-man image, Putin flew above the Yamal peninsula in the far north of Siberia alongside a group of migrating Siberian cranes. State television broadcast the spectacular images of Putin soaring above Siberia as its top news story but the action was also mercilessly mocked by increasingly confident opposition bloggers as a brazen publicity stunt. The group of Siberian cranes had been raised in captivity at the Kushevat ornithological station on Yamal and Putin's task in his motorised hang-glider was to pose as a giant bird to guide them on the correct migration route south after their release. "Let's quickly make our roles clear -- I am the alpha-crane!" a popular cartoon doing the rounds on the Russian Internet showed a caricature of Putin telling a group of puzzled-looking cranes. "Amphorae. Part II?" said leading Russian blogger drugoi (other), referring to a notorious episode last year when Putin "found" ancient Greek urns while diving that later turned out to have been deliberately placed. In a sign of the frenzy a single posting on social networks in Russia can now create, one student working at the station caused a Twitter sensation by saying that several of the birds had died in the run up to Putin's flight. But the woman, Maria Goncharova, swiftly deleted her posting on Russian social network Vkontakte, saying Putin personally had caused no harm to the birds, begging "everyone to calm down" and saying she would comment no more. After failing to attract the cranes in a first flight, Putin managed to pick up a group of five birds on his second flight and helped direct them on their path towards Central Asia. Putin's white outfit was designed so he matched the plumage of a Siberian crane, but rumors the president would wear a beak during the flight proved to be untrue. Putin appeared to have carried out most of the flying with a senior pilot seated behind him. "It is amazing how the birds get used to it," Putin told state television after landing, still dressed in his pilot's outfit of helmet and goggles. "They do not fear the hang-glider and they overtook it. They are amazing. It's a very good feeling." Putin told Russian news agencies he had been preparing for the stunt for one-and-a-half years. Senior pilot Igor Nikitin said Putin had already clocked up 17 hours of hang-glider flying time in training. The president said he had bought his own hang-glider himself and would donate it to scientists for their work. It appeared the flight took place on Wednesday evening as Putin stopped off on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok, with the images then broadcast in time for the morning news on Thursday. The Russian president over recent years has made a speciality of meeting some of Russia's rarest wildlife at close quarters, including an Amur tiger, a snow leopard, a beluga whale and polar bear. Putin has taken projects to save these species under his own personal patronage, although critics accuse him of being more interested in attractive photo-opportunities than the environment. His encounter with the snow leopard in 2011 led to accusations that the animal has been transferred far from its usual habitat to meet Putin, much to the detriment of the rare predator's health.