A credulous Reuters reports that Vladimir Putin has saved a TV crew from a Siberian tiger. I am not making this up:
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was feted by Russian media on Sunday for saving a television crew from an attack by a Siberian tiger in the wilds of the Far East.
Putin, taking a break from lambasting the West over Georgia, apparently saved the crew while on a trip to a national park to see how researchers monitor the tigers in the wild.
Just as Putin was arriving with a group of wildlife specialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and ran towards a nearby camera crew, the country’s main television station said. Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it with a tranquilizer gun.
“Vladimir Putin not only managed to see the giant predator up close but also saved our television crew too,” a presenter on Rossiya television said at the start of the main evening news.
(Via Hot Air.)
I’m going to have to see video before I believe this one. But, judging by the footage running on Russian television, they don’t have any.
UPDATE: Fox News has the right idea. They run this AP story, but give it the headline “Russian Strongman Putin Reportedly Saves TV Crew From Tiger Attack.”
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