Putin’s pike photo new – Kremlin spokesman

Vladimir Putin file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 28, 2013) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refuted rumors that the photo showing President Vladimir Putin pulling out a pike had been made before 2013.

Runet users circulate rumors “for the lack of anything better to do in the summer time,” Peskov said in an interview with the Russian News Service on Sunday, commenting on reports that Putin’s photograph could have been taken from the archives.

“The bloggers’ joy is easy to explain: it’s summertime , there is nothing special to do, hence all this speculation. I can state with responsibility that they are wrong. Concerning the clothes, they were new, not the clothes worn during an earlier trip. And the watch was the one he was wearing during the most recent trip. Unfortunately, all this speculation has taken a wrong track,” Peskov said.

Reports emerged in blogs claiming that that Putin’s photo with a pike, allegedly taken during his trip to Tuva in late July 2013, shows him wearing exactly the same clothes and wristwatch he did in 2007. They also claimed that the trip was not on Putin’s schedule posted on the official website, and that journalists from the Kremlin team had not been invited.

While commenting on bloggers’ claims that the size of the pike was exaggerated , he said, “I was particularly surprised by comments posted by blogger named ‘Kokh,’ who said, if I am not mistaken, that the pike could not have weighed 20 kilograms. I myself was there when the pike was being weighed. It weighed more than 20 kilograms.”

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