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Top 10 Bizarre Vladimir Putin Facts
President of Russia Vladimir Putin started his political career as an officer in the KGB, The Soviet Union’s feared secret police. He rose quickly through its ranks, eventually becoming the head of the KGB. His political acumen eventually took him to the highest office in Russia, but his personal quirks have always been a topic of fascination to Russians and foreign observers alike. The oddities of Vladimir Putin are many. Listed here are the top 10.
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10. He helped fight a fire:
Putin is known for valuing personal bravery and often demands that the Russian media record his own feats. According to The Moscow Times, Putin acted as co-pilot in a firefighting plane in 2010. Though not a trained pilot, he held the throttle and pushed the button that dumped 24 tons of water on the forest fire. Whether Putin’s “help” was appreciated by the real firefighters battling the blaze is not recorded in the Times story.
9.He saved a television crew from a tiger attack:
In another incident arranged for the media, Putin saved a television crew from a tiger attack. Putin was being filmed at a national park observing research on tigers in the wild in 2008 when a tiger became agitated and lunged for the crew. Putin shot the animal with a tranquilizer gun and then helped the researchers measure its teeth and put a radio transmitter around its neck. Putin later admitted that the scene, along with some of his other well-publicized adventures in the wild, was staged to help highlight the plight of endangered species.
8. Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad).
He was born into a Soviet Union in the midst of the cold war; a Soviet Union that was overcrowded and underdeveloped, even in its cities. Putin’s family, like many others, endured difficult living conditions and Putin grew up in a rat-infested communal apartment that was shared with 2 other families. Putin has recounted in numerous interviews how he had to chase rats through his apartment building to scare them away.
7. Putin is fluent in German and reportedly knows English, but is not comfortable speaking it in public.
He has no problem, however, with singing in English. In fact, Kremlin insiders say that the Russian president loves to sing for an audience. In 2010 He sang “Blueberry Hill” with a jazz orchestra at a charity function in front of an audience of Hollywood stars and dignitaries in St. Petersburg. He also played a Russian song called “Where the Motherland Begins” on the piano. The assembled crowd gave him a standing ovation. He later recreated his performance during an appearance on CNN’s Larry King Show.
6. Putin’s obsession with being seen as macho is well known:
Perhaps this comes from the fact that he is short, standing only 5’6” tall. When asked about his height, Putin has steadfastly refused to discuss it and no public record is available of his official height, but observers have put it at somewhere between 5’5” and 5’7”. Amateur psychoanalysts and the press have speculated that Putin has a Napoleon complex and that his recent aggressiveness toward Ukraine can be attributed to his short stature.
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