Putin: James Bond villain and extreme traveler
Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin went to extremes this summer to appear like the classical villain in a James Bond movie: On Chlakov Island in Russia’s far east he clipped a satellite transmitter to a harmless Beluga whale. Then he had himself lowered 1,400 meters deep into Lake Baikal on board of a mini-submarine to look for natural gas to exploit. Later he rode across the Siberian Republic of Tuva, bare-chested and with a grim look in his face. Putin also moved amongst diplomatic circles with the same steely expression – meeting Iran’s president Ahmadinejad in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg and mingling with Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi at the G8 summit meetings in L’Aquila, Italy. Also a short trip to Sukhumi in Abchasi featured on his list – as it is just around the corner from his summer palace in Sochi at the Black Sea. There Putin relaxes when he is tired from traveling – and plays „Nuclear War“ on his old Amiga 500 computer.
