Video crocodiles, sharks or lemons. What the private zoo of force leaders, from Lord Checen of War to Viktor Orban, looks like
From Budapest to Groznîi, from Moscow to Phenian, authoritarian leaders have long transformed wild animals into political accessories, symbols of wealth, virility and power, Politico wrote on Thursday.
The recent images filmed from the drone at the residence of the family of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hatvanpuszta, a former property of the Habsburg family, sparked controversy, revealing that, besides luxury elements such as a garden with palm trees, a chapel and wells, on the property were also exotic animals, including zebras and ante.
The scandal broke out in early August, after the opposition deputy Ákos Hadházy published images with Orban's property, where construction works were not completed, images that contest the Budapest government according to which the site is just a “major”) agricultural.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, teased Orban about images, asking if the zebras are “traditional farm animals” in Hungary.
Force leaders do not measure their power only in gold plates and the organization of military parades, but also in holding exotic creatures that feel at home in Serengeti than in the boring European field, notes the publication in Brussels, who, in the light of the Orban case and its zebras, has analyzed other animal.
A story with Lemuri and a shark
The Georgian oligarch and the de facto leader Bidzina Ivanișvili live in a neomodernist castle of steel and glass located on the heights of Tbilisi, where he has his own shark aquarium. In recent years, his party, the Georgian dream, has been removed from the EU and has been oriented towards a pro -proven policy.
Known collector of plants and exotic animals, Ivanișvili gathered an impressive personal park in his mansion, which includes penguins, zebras, lemur, a kangaroo and, yes, a shark. In a 2014 interview, he modestly described the shark as a small one, “only one and a half”.
“Lemurii were walking free in my yard like cats,” he added.
Connoisseur of the ostriches, given in the vile
Politico also writes that the former “satrap” of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovici, also had a zoo in his mansion, with peacocks, pheasants, deer and bears. He also had three kangaroos, but one died frozen, one fled, and the third was released in the hope that he would return – which did not happen.
But the ostriches were the animals that turned it into a passionate fauna, according to its first important interview after being removed from power to Kiev by the Euromaidan Revolution of 2014. January said: “I took care of the ostriches, what is bad in this?” -a phrase that instantly triggered a wave of memes.
These ostriches survived their owner, who fled to Russia, and still wandered on the land of the Kiev mansion, which is now a public park.
The crocodile of “Putin's attack dog”
It is said that the Chechen Lord of the war, Ramzan Kadîrov, holds dozens of animals in his many palaces. Cats, hunting dogs and ordinary horses, deer, bears and ducks would not impress anyone from this list.
But his collection would go further, including a camel farm. And Kadîrov – nicknamed “Putin's attack dog” – also holds a tiger, a lion and a crocodile, according to Radio Free Europe.
Few people involved in the Ukraine war are more feared than the “Gueliva” Kadîrov – at least when it comes to posts on social media social networks, notes politico, adding that the authoritarian leader “may bark harder than biting.”
Iaci in exchange with soldiers
In an emblematic gesture of the diplomacy of an authoritarian regime, Russia gave North Korea over 70 zoo last year, including an African leu, two brown bears and two years.
The generous gift came one month after the Phenian sent troops to help Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine.
Putin, who prefers big dogs, spoke on Tuesday with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong one before the US discussions about the Kremlin war against Ukraine. The Zoo issues did not seem to appear on the agenda of the conversation with Kim, notes the Brussels publication.
Trump, intrigued by leopards
Even a president who largely despises pets cannot withstand a small diplomacy with large felines.
During his visit from May in Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump received more than investment promises: the Kingdom gave a pair of rare Arab leopards to the Smithsonian national zoos.
Known for his indifference to animals-he never brought a dog or a cat to the White House and once wrote on Twitter how much sharks-Trump would have been intrigued by leopards, asking the Smithsonian director about their personality and showing a special interest for this species.
“The silence of the lambs”, the Variant Berlusconi
But not all force leaders prefer predators.
In 2017, the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi posed alongside Mia in a vegetarian theme Easter campaign. “Be like him. He saved five lambs from the slaughter of Easter!”, He urged the viewers a message then on the bourne of a television in the peninsula.
Although much less ferocious than the animals associated with other personalities in this list, the gesture aimed to create a milder image for the extravagant media tycoon that became politician, transforming the nice fur animals into a political PR instrument.
