Putin given tigress cub for 56th birthday

RUSSIAN prime minister Vladimir Putin got a tigress cub for his birthday and will give the animal to a zoo, state broadcaster Vesti-24 reported.

Putin, who turned 56 on Tuesday, was shown stroking the two- month-old tigress at a meeting with Russian journalists at his residence outside Moscow yesterday.

He called Russian journalists to his country home without telling them why. Past midnight, after asking them “not to make noise, make a clatter or squeal”, Putin ushered the curious journalists into the room where the tiger cub was waiting.