This video of Vladimir Putin catching a gigantic fish reminds me of a story George W. Bush frequently told members of the White House press corps when I was on the beat.
About a year after Putin visited Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., the president traveled to Moscow, where the Russian leader gave him a tour of his dacha. According to Bush, Putin seemed super competitive during the tour, pointing out repeatedly how much better his digs were than Bush’s ranch. At one point, Putin even bragged that his dog–a giant Labrador–was bigger and stronger than Barney, Bush’s Scottish terrier, to which the American president said he just laughed.
But the part of the trip that seemed to amuse Bush the most came when Putin took him to a pond on his property and bragged to Bush that it was stocked with more fish than the small man-made lake on the ranch in Crawford. According to Bush, Putin proved it by literally sticking a fishing rod into the water and almost instantly catching a huge trout. Bush told reporters he was always convinced that a scuba diver had been waiting under the water to deposit a fish on Putin’s hook.