Putin the Hunter Goes Spearfishing and Soon You'll See the Film

(Bloomberg) -- Brace yourselves for the latest addition to President Vladimir Putin’s macho exploits in the wilds of Russia. The Kremlin says he went spear-fishing during a brief vacation this week, donning a wetsuit and snorkel mask equipped with a GoPro camera to film himself in a chilly Siberian lake.

“He was chasing a pike for two hours and just couldn’t hit it, but he managed to get it in the end,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Friday. While the lake isn’t usually warmer than 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit), “that didn’t keep the president from going for a swim” and he wore a wetsuit and snorkel mask equipped with the camera while fishing, he said.

Putin spent two days in the remote region of Tuva, southern Siberia, accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, going hiking in the taiga and riding rafts and motor boats on a mountain lake, Peskov said. The Kremlin plans to release “absolutely brilliant” drone footage of the visit on Monday as well as “unique” material from Putin’s camera, he said.

The fishing trip adds to Putin’s tradition of outdoor adventures, all faithfully captured on camera to bolster his action-man image for the public. In 2008, he shot a Siberian tiger with a tranquilizer gun, reportedly saving a TV crew from attack. Two years later, he hugged a sedated polar bear during a visit to the Arctic. He’s also been shown in the past catching a giant pike and discovering ancient Greek urns while scuba-diving in the Black Sea. Putin also scored seven goals in a hockey game for his 63rd birthday in 2015.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stepan Kravchenko in Moscow at skravchenko@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin