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10 Apr, 2013 15:50

Dog day as Putin plays with pets in the snow (PHOTOS)

Dog day as Putin plays with pets in the snow (PHOTOS)

He has been seen posing with a tiger cub, riding a horse bare-chested and even flying with endangered cranes. Now, Russian President Putin impressed the public by playing in the snow with his two dogs in Moscow, according to new pictures.

The photoset by Putin’s personal photographer was made public on Wednesday. The photos were initially taken on March 24, a snowy day when the President was playing with his dogs Buffy and Yume at his residence Novo-Ogariovo, outside Moscow.

Both Buffy, the Bulgarian Shepherd, and Yume, the Japanese Akita Inu puppy, are relatively new in the public eye. Both canines were given to Putin as gifts.

President Vladimir Putin and his dogs, Buffy the Bulgarian Shepherd and Yume the Akita-Inu, walk in the Moscow Region (RIA Novosti / Alexsey Druginyn)

Buffy was presented to Putin by former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in November 2010. At the time, Russians were tasked with choosing a name for the Bulgarian puppy. Buffy came from 5-year old Dima Sokolov. The boy and his parents were invited to Putin’s Novo-Ogarevo residence, where the then-prime minister introduced Dima and Buffy to each other.

Yume – ‘dream’ in Japanese – joined the Putin family this past July, and is now nearly 1 year old. The dog came from Tokyo as a gift to show gratitude for Russia’s assistance after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country in March 2011.

Buffy became Putin’s second pet. The first was his beloved female Black Labrador Koni, who is often seen with him during official meetings. Koni was also a present – Putin received her from former Emergency Minister Sergey Shoigu in 2001.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Bocharov Ruchei presidential residence, Sochi (RIA Novosti / Dmitry Astakhov)

Koni is now more than 12 years old – quite advanced in dog years! – and did not join Putin on the walk.

"She is a lady of old age, is now moving slowly, so not to hurt the old lady, she is being held separately from the young horses,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov joked.

President Vladimir Putin and his dogs, Buffy the Bulgarian Shepherd and Yume the Akita-Inu, walk in the Moscow Region (RIA Novosti / Alexsey Druginyn)

RIA Novosti / Alexsey Druginyn

Vladimir Putin on a vacation in the Republic of Tyva (RIA Novosti / Alexsey Druginyn)

In the sky: a motorized hang glider with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the controls (RIA Novosti / Alexsey Druginyn)

Vladimir Putin, left, and Senior Researcher of the Ecology and Evolution Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Lukaretsky, right, looking over a five year-old tigress, temporarily immobilized by scientists, during a visit to the Ussuri Reserve in the Far East (RIA Novosti / Alexsey Druginyn)

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