Posted on 08/10/2010 12:41:39 PM PDT by kronos77
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took part in extinguishing forest fires in Ryazan Province on board an amphibious firefighting airplane.
The Russian head of government was the co-pilot for half an hour aboard a Be-200 plane scooping up water from the nearby Oka River and dumping it on raging forest fires some 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
He dumped approximately 12 tons of water on each of two fires, extinguishing both completely.
Putin initially sat in the cabin in front of a thermal imaging monitor together with Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ryazan Governor Oleg Kovalev.
However, shortly after takeoff Putin suddenly entered the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot's seat.
He received a quick briefing from Emergency Situations Ministry aviation chief Rafail Zakirov.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.rian.ru ...
During the flight, Putin observed the operation of another Be-200 that was also dousing fires from a minimum height.
He also spotted a fresh steppe fire in dangerous proximity to two villages.
Governor Kovalev, still airborne, immediately issued instructions to the local authorities to take measures to extinguish it.
Putin's stunt comes as polls show waning public support for Russia's president and prime minister.
Respected Russian sociologist Leonty Byzov told Vedomosti business daily Putin and Medvedev's ratings could drop to 40% in the next six months. He said there was a growing fatigue surrounding Putin's popularity and that if the government's poor response to the wildfire crisis is taken into account, the two leaders' ratings would decrease dramatically.
Wildfires, sparked by weeks of abnormally high temperatures in central Russia, have severely damaged the Russian economy, with the estimated short-term loss of $15 billion.
RYAZAN, August 10 (RIA Novosti)
Meanwhile, the Usurper picked up a tarball.
He should drop into the blaze and flex his shirtless torso at the fire. No fire could withstand that much macho.
ping for later photoshop effort!
What a stud!
I have to admit, if he weren’t such a scary KGB type who has only spraypainted over his leopard spots, I would find this hilarious.
Oh, wait...it IS hilarious regardless! Well, I give him credit for understanding modern politics!
Why wasn’t he flying the helicopter shirtless? Putin’s slipping...
Too funny.
o
Dude! You nailed it.
I can see myself strapped to a wooden chair, with a bunch of primitive blunt instruments arrayed on a table while a guy like this sits across from me at 0330 in the morning deciding whether to put me on a train in shackles to somewhere, knock all my teeth out after keeping me awake for five days, both, or just a bullet in the neck.
He looks like the kind of guy who would be sitting there, deciding my fate.
LOL!
Ok, I want to see Putin versus Obama in the cage next UFC, Mr. White, make it happen please, sir.
Putin aside, that is one studly looking seaplane...
What a visual.
Unless you were Jack Bauer, of course.
How are they going to fill the rest of the 59 minutes and 52 seconds of air time?
Of course. That was his job.
John Fitch!
Putin saved a camera crew from a tiger attack. Remember that?
That dude is hardcore.
He is so out of fat-greasy-old-drunk stereotype of leaders of USSR/Russia like Hruschev, Brezhnev or Yeltsin were.
LOL...then, of course, there would be some way out as long as the blonde daugher wasn’t around.
My wife and I who had never seen any of them watched the entire first and second year in a marathon over a week or so, and my wife said anytime a blonde woman showed up anywhere, trouble immediately followed. She called his daughter “a beacon of danger” which I thought was pretty funny...:)
What Pooty-poot needs to do is call up Evergreen and hire them to fly their 747 water tankers. They were used in the CA fires last year.
Remember the good old days?
I have read “The Gulag Archipelago” a few times, and boy, just looking at Putin sitting in that chair with that look on his face gives me the creeps.
THAT’S AWESOME!
I think Putin would have flunkies to do the actual dirty work.
Heh, come on...those guys were never alive for very long. They probably died a few days after taking office, and for the rest of the time (particularly the May Day Parades) they were simply painted plywood cutouts with a hinged arm that moved and waved...
Heck, he didn’t start at the top. I’ll bet he had to get his hands dirty early on, until he figured out how to stab his supervisors in the back to climb over them.
LOL!
Hahahahahaha!
Precious!
at least Putin looks like he is packing some ammo
Mean one... Would like to have one, lux-style.
Chuck Norris is getting competition.
At least he does not hate his own country.
Actually, I think I remember reading he was on some kind of fast track, career-wise, and so the back-stabbing etc. would have been kept to a minimum. The martial arts thing is certainly indicative, though. Who knows.
If I HAD to choose between the Obama and Putin, I think I’d chose Putin. I don’t like Putin or Obama’s policies, but there is SOMETHING macho about Putin that I think even other Americans find appealing.
Obama is just a sleezy, slimy, left wing crooked Chicago politician. Somehow I can never see him getting a black belt in Karate, hunting tigers, or flying a plane to put out wildfires.
He’s more at home in a college classroom, poisoning young impressionable minds.
That’s a cool airplane. Yes, a luxury model would be very handy. I think I’ll order one up. (right after I win the megabucks lottery)
Of course if I could choose any leader, I would go with Bibi.
At this place and time, if I could choose ANY leader, it would be George Washington (or maybe Genghis Khan).
Well, I was thinking more of living people.
BINGO!!!!
that is just pathetic. We need a real man or a real woman in the white house I don’t care which.
Thats’ BEAUTIFUL!!!
Reagan was a MACHO MAN!!!
Here I come to save the day mighty mouse is on his way.
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