MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that he went on a 5-mile hike in the mountains of Siberia on his 62nd birthday.
"The day before yesterday was a day of walking for me. I walked in the mountains for almost 9 kilometers [about 5 miles]. Everything still hurts," Putin said, opening a session of the Presidential Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport.
On Tuesday, October 7, Russia's president celebrated his birthday in the Siberian taiga - a vast forested area in the northern regions of Russia. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin took the day off and flew over to Siberia to relax 300 to 400 kilometers (190-250 miles) away from the nearest town or village.
Vladimir Putin held several phone talks Tuesday, with a number of foreign leaders, including Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, passing birthday greetings to the Russian president.
Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic).
