President Vladimir Putin shunned the glitz and glamour of the capital to spend his 62nd birthday hiking in the Siberian wilderness, a news report said Thursday.
Speaking at a presidential meeting on sports development, Putin said he had spent Tuesday on a nine-kilometer hike in the Siberian taiga, as a result of which "everything still aches," the Interfax news agency reported.
The president took his birthday off work for the first time in 15 years on Tuesday to travel to Siberia, where he stayed 300-400 kilometers away from the nearest civilization.
Putin spent the day in the company of several famous people, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday, without providing any names.
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