Vladamir Putin:

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) — He’s driven a big truck, flown in a Russian fighter jet and fished shirtless on national television. Now comes Vladimir Putin’s latest image-boosting escapade, a visit to a Russian wildlife preserve that gave him the chance to wear camouflage, stalk through the woods and shoot a tiger — all for a good cause. Russia’s state-run television showed footage Monday of the tough-talking prime minister’s visit to the Far East, home of the rare Ussuri tiger. Russian media reports said Putin aided a program to track the tigers by shooting a 5-year-old female cat with a tranquilizer gun after it had freed itself from a restraint. The televised footage showed Putin, deep in the woods, placing a collar with a tracking device around the knocked-out tiger’s neck and patting its cheek like a pet. “She’ll remember us,” he said.