By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was fetedby Russian media on Sunday for saving a television crew from anattack by a Siberian tiger in the wilds of the Far East.
Putin, taking a break from lambasting the West overGeorgia, apparently saved the crew while on a trip to anational park to see how researchers monitor the tigers in thewild.
Just as Putin was arriving with a group of wildlifespecialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and rantowards a nearby camera crew, the country's main televisionstation said. Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it witha tranquilizer gun.
"Vladimir Putin not only managed to see the giant predatorup close but also saved our television crew too," a presenteron Rossiya television said at the start of the main eveningnews.
The 55-year-old former KGB spy, who cultivated a machoimage during his eight years as the Kremlin chief, was shownstriding through the taiga in camouflage and desert bootsbefore grappling with the feline foe.
He helped measure the Amur tiger's incisors before placinga satellite transmitter around the neck of the beast, which canweigh up to 450 kg (1,000 lb) and measure around ten feet(three metres) from nose to the tip of the tail.
The Amur tiger, the world's biggest wild cat, has recentlypounced back from the brink of extinction to hit its highestpopulation level for at least 100 years, the WWF said lastyear.
Putin thanked Western researchers for being involved inprogrammes to save the Amur tigers.
"First of all, we must thank our colleagues, Americans,European colleagues for being involved with this during adifficult time for Russia when no-one was paying any attentionto this," Putin said.
Putin last year made it into glossy magazines across theworld by donning combat trousers and baring his muscular torsofor photographers while on a fishing trip in the Yenisei river.
Sensitive to a growing environmental movement in Russia,Putin as president redrew a planned oil pipeline route to avoidLake Baikal and scrapped plans for an Olympic village nearSochi that could have damaged local flora and fauna.
(editing by Sami Aboudi)
