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On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin toured a Persian leopard breeding center in Sochi, stopping to pet a young feline. Putin personally drove International Olympic Committee officials to the Persian Leopard Breeding and Rehabilitation Center in a Lada Niva. There, he entered a leopard nursery to pet 6-month-old Grom (“Thunder”) in front of the cameras. He praised leopards’ sexual prowess after learning that they can mate up to 274 times a week when in heat. Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that Putin told one of the journalists, “Take example!” Grom, agitated by the crowd accompanying Putin, eventually snapped and attacked journalists, scratching one and biting another on the knee. This prompted Putin to linger after the crowd left, trying to calm down the cub. Putin, a noted animal lover, visited the leopard centre in Sochi several times since its opening in 2009. The centre, which now houses six adult Persian leopards and four cubs, is working to reintroduce the big cats into the Caucasus, where their population is now extinct. The Persian leopard, one of nine leopard subspecies, is a threatened animal, with its population in the wild believed to be no more than 1,200, mostly in Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. Other animals Putin took interest in include tigers, polar bears, dogs, horses, cranes, and octopi.
4 February 2014
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140204/187205529/Putin-Hugs-Leopard-Cub-in-Sochi.html
Editor’s Note:
VVP appears to have real rapport with animals… that’s a gift, you can’t learn it in school. He sincerely loves animals and the outdoors… and can’t get enough of both due to his work. If you compare VVP to George W Bush, Willard Romney, or Rush Limbaugh, you can’t help observing how petty and small they are in comparison to Putin. Like him or not, he’s a genuine human being and real statesman, not a blowhard politician.
Voices from Russia 
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