A day after Medvedev sipped tea with Bono on the sunny veranda of his summer villa, Putin chased whales in choppy waters near Russia’s Pacific coast. How symbolic of the role division in the Medvedev-Putin duumvirate. The AFP reports:

Dressed in heavy waterproofs, Putin fired arrows from an inflatable raft off the volcanic Kamchatka Peninsula at a rare grey whale to obtain a skin sample, managing to hit the animal at the fourth attempt…

…”There was a real feeling of exhilaration — I missed three times but hit on the fourth attempt,” Putin told reporters after returning to the shore after a trip of several hours that saw the boat buffeted by a rolling surf.