吉尔吉斯斯坦一山用"普京"命名

吉尔吉斯斯坦新任总理近日签署文件，将以俄罗斯总理普京的名字为该国北部天山地区的一座山峰命名，显示了这届联合政府对俄罗斯政府的友好。据悉，这座山高度超过1.4万英尺（约合4446米），是吉尔吉斯斯坦第三座以领导人名字命名的山峰。此前有一座临近伊塞克湖的5212米高峰被冠以俄罗斯前总统叶利钦的名字，该国南部地区奥什的一座7437米高的山峰则被以前苏联领导人列宁的名字命名。

Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, is to be imMortalised through the naming of a peak in his honour in the Tian Shan range of Northern Kyrgyzstan.

At 14,587 feet, the mountain chosen to become Peak Vladimir Putin doesn't come close to the 17,100 foot Peak Yeltsin, near Kyrgyzstan's Lake Issyk Kul, let alone reach the soaring 24,400 foot height of Peak Lenin near the country's southern city of Osh.

But there's little risk that Russia will see the gesture by Kyrgyzstan's new prime minister Almazbek Atambayev, who signed the bill to rename the peak, as anything other than a sign of friendship.

Mr Putin has warned Russians against forming a personality cult around him, and his aides said he did not support those who renamed the main street in Grozny, the capital of the troubled region of Chechnya, in his honour in 2008.

But the past few years have nonetheless seen Mr Putin seek to bolster his macho image with a series of publicity stunts, such as shooting a tiger with tranquillisers, and a whale with a skin-sampler gun, and collaring a polar bear.

Mr Atambayev, whose new coalition government is widely seen as pro-Russian, flew to Moscow last week for his first meeting with Mr Putin as Kyrgyzstan's leader. Mr Putin scrapped a punitive fuel excise duty and offered Kyrgyzstan a $200 million development loan.