Daily Beaast – Russian President Vladimir Putin will strap into a motorized glider and lead a group of endangered cranes as they begin their winter migration in a publicity stunt that can only be termed bizarre. He’ll be joining a group of scientists who use gliders to help the Siberian cranes born in captivity on the first leg of their migratory journey. “The president will get to try himself in the role of the leader of a flock of cranes that were raised in captivity,” one Russian newspaper said. Putin is known for being something of an outdoorsman–when it suits his publicity purposes–and once wrote that he enjoys “events involving the participation of fauna.”

Over here in America we’re throwing these big old parties for ourselves. Big conventions in arenas where people just babble for hours on end. Speeches and interviews and montage features. Just talk talk talk talk. Meanwhile in Russia Putin is helping Siberian Cranes make it home. You know what that is, my friends? Action. Do these birds need help finding their way home? Probably not. Is it naturally ingrained in the brains of birds to know how to migrate? Probably. But is Putin gonna take that risk? For sure not. Gonna hop in a motorized hang glider and fly these motherfuckers south for the winter.

Thats just what Putin does. He’s either riding motorcycles, hunting in the wild, scuba diving in the deep blue sea, fighting in the Jujitsu dojo, skating with pro hockey players, or incarcerating the Pussy Riot because he thinks free speech is for pansies. Because thats what a man of action does.