High-flying president

He famously fought bears, saved the Ussuriysk tiger, flew a fighter jet, put out forest fires from aboard a plane, and just happened to stumble upon two ancient Greek amphoras while performing a deep-sea dive.

But now Vladimir Putin is to embark on arguably his most bizarre stunt: flying at the head of a flock of endangered Siberian cranes. According to reports, this should happen in the Yamal Peninsula, in north-western Siberia, en route to the APEC summit. Mr Putin's spokesman has confirmed that his boss has been taking flying lessons, and that he'll be making a stopover at Yamal, but would not elaborate.

This is all part of the project 'Flight of Hope', where cranes, born in captivity, are helped by hang gliders to migrate to Central Asia to spend the winter. But this time, weather permitting, flying suspended under a...

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Have you ever wished you could fly? Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to make that wish come true...