Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has tried to boost his macho image by shooting tranquilisers at a Siberian tiger.
Putin, dressed in combat fatigues, was with a team of wildlife researchers in the Ussuri reserve in Russia's far east when the tiger escaped its harness and headed towards a television crew.
Armed with a tranquiliser gun, Putin shot at the tiger, which soon slumped to the ground.
Russian media hailed the prime minister's efforts as heroic.
"He immediately fired from a special gun which scientists use to immobilise animals, and hit the tigress in its shoulder blade," according to one reporter quoted in Britain's Daily Mail.
"The tigress was immediately sedated."
After the tiger was sedated, Putin helped measure its teeth and place a satellite tracking device around its neck.
However, some sceptics suggested the incident had been set up so the TV crew could capture the powerful image of Putin shooting the tiger.
Photos of the former Russian president in various action man poses were flashed around the world several times last year.
One showed him stripped to the waist while fishing in Siberia.
After he finished grappling with the tiger, Putin played down moves by European Union leaders to increase diplomatic pressure on Russia over its violation of a ceasefire deal with Georgia.
"Whatever they might say there - right is on our side," Putin said.
Leaders from 27 EU states are due to hold emergency talks in Brussels today and demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops to pre-war positions as well as condemn Moscow's recognition of the independence of breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
