Vladimir Putin, the bear-baiting, tiger-tranquillising, crane-cross-dressing, bare-boobed general demi-god of all things adventurous, has had his superman exploits exposed as staged stunts, according to a Russian journalist.
Putin allegedly made the confession during a phone conversation with Masha Gessen, an outspoken critic of Putin.
Gessen used to be the editor of Vokrug Sveta (Around the World), a Russian science magazine. She was sacked from her job for refusing to cover the president's attempts to fly a hang glider with wild cranes .
Putin dressed as a crane
Gessen claims the Russian President rang her to apologise for being the cause of her sacking and during the conversation admitted that the stunts were carefully arranged and stage managed.
Last year a spokesman for the then-prime minister admitted that Putin's discovery of two sixth century Greek urns whilst scuba diving was faked.
Press secretary Dmitry Peskov confessed that the artefacts had been sneaked into the water on purpose for the former KGB agent to find. In an interview with TV channel Dozhd he said:
"Look – Putin didn't find down there jugs that had lain there for many thousands of years. It's obvious."
Putin's defence was that he was simply trying to highlight important issues. Referring to an incident in which he shot a rare snow leopard with a tranquilliser he is alleged to have told Gessen: "Yes, I know the leopard was caught in advance but the main thing is to draw attention to the problem."