Story highlights
Valdimir Putin plays gala ice hockey match
Russian president scores six goals
Most heads of state exist in suits and live a sedentary life, but Vladimir Putin is not most heads of state.
The Russian president, a former KGB spy, has long been keen to portray an image of an action man and he shows no sign of slowing down.
On Wednesday, the 64-year-old starred in a gala ice hockey match in Sochi, showing off his skating prowess and stick skills as he scored six goals in the exhibition game for the Night Hockey League Wednesday at the Bolshoy Ice Dome.
But Putin was left red-faced – to match his traditional No. 11 jersey – when he took a tumble and was left on his back with his feet in the air.
In a brief pre-game interview Putin told CBS News foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer Russia “had nothing to do with” US President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI chief James Comey.
“Your question looks very funny for me. Don’t be angry with me. We have nothing to do with that,” Putin said in Russian, translated into English by his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Putin has not been shy of publicising his leisure pursuits over the years. He is a keen horse man.
He is also a fan of scuba diving. In this picture he went diving on an archaeological site at Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula in 2011.
With his military background, Putin also knows one end of a weapon from the other. Here, he brandishes a rifle during a hunting trip in the Republic of Tuva in 2007.
He flew a motorized hangglider as part of a scientific experiment aiming to preserve a rare species of crane in 2012.
A keen skier, Putin was instrumental in landing the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Putin is also a black belt in judo.
