flipped

VLADIMIR Putin has revealed the moment he had a dice with death while riding a motorbike.

The ageing Russian tyrant shared an anecdote of how he almost died as he tried to fire up the engine.

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Speaking to defence minister Andrei Belousov, he said the incident was a time when he “dodged” death.

But Putin did not reveal when or where the moment happened in his story.

The 72-year-old despot said: “I once got on a motorcycle, revved it.

“And it went into a spin and flipped over.

“I just dodged it at the last second. It fell right next to me.”

Putin has long sought to cultivate an image as a macho tough guy as part of his domestic persona.

He has frequently been pictured shirtless doing outdoors activities and sports to reinforce his personality cult.

The tyrant shared the motorbike anecdote dressed in military fatigues – despite being hundreds of miles from the war zone.

He spoke last week at the culmination of anti-Western war games involving Russia and Belarus.

In the past, Putin has appeared with the Night Wolves motorcycle club to help foster his macho image.

The Russian President was photographed riding a Russian-made Ural motorcycle with a sidecar in 2019.

It comes as the warmongering despot’s brutal attacks against Ukraine continue to intensify.

The Kremlin’s forces have launched devastating strikes on Ukraine over the past days.

Yesterday, The Sun reported that Russia had launched 580 drones and 40 cruise and ballistic missiles overnight.

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At least three people were killed and 13 others injured in the savage attacks.

And earlier this week, Russian jets violated NATO airspace over Estonia.

Three MiG-31 jets flew over Vaindloo Island and stayed there for nearly 12 minutes.

NATO allies scrambled Italian F-35s to repel the planes – which had their transponders turned off.

Security expert Will Geddes told The Sun: “What we’re increasingly seeing is incursions into NATO country airspace, whether that be Poland, quite recently on September 10, with drones, whether it be Romania, or now Estonia.

“This is becoming increasingly concerning, as NATO has a joint agreement in terms of protecting their airspace.”

He added: “I think what it really comes down to is the fact that Russia is testing NATO countries, and testing their aerial defence measures.”

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The Federal Trade Commission accused a shadowy group of flooding Ticketmaster with fake accounts to purchase and resell tickets to concerts by Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and other top artists.

The FTC alleged that between Nov. 1, 2022, and Dec. 30, 2023, a core group of three individuals used a network of sites such as Totaltickets, TotallyTix and Front Rose Tix to purchase at least 379,776 tickets from Ticketmaster, spending nearly $57 million. The complaint states they then resold those tickets on secondary marketplaces for nearly $64 million.

The trio allegedly used software to mask IP addresses, purloined credit cards and SIM cards to create fake Ticketmaster accounts. They also enlisted friends and family to create Ticketmaster Verified Fan accounts, giving small sign-up bonuses and kickbacks for creating new accounts.

The FTC alleges that the group made $1.2 million from flipping tickets to Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour in 2023 alone. According to the complaint, at a Las Vegas Taylor Swift concert, “Defendants used 49 different accounts to purchase 273 tickets to Taylor Swift’s March 25, 2023, concert at Allegiant Stadium, dramatically exceeding The Eras Tour’s 2023 six-ticket limit. Defendants then marked up and resold these tickets, netting $119,227.21 in revenue.”

For one Bruce Springsteen show at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 1, 2023, “Defendants used 277 different accounts to purchase 1,530 tickets, dramatically exceeding Springsteen and the E Street Band’s four-ticket limit. Defendants marked up and resold these tickets, netting $20,900.84 in revenue.”

The FTC alleges their actions are a violation of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act. Representatives for Ticketmaster parent firm Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment.

While Ticketmaster is not accused of any wrongdoing in the complaint, Swift famously lambasted Ticketmaster after the Eras Tour on-sale fiasco in which many fans were locked out of opportunities to buy tickets and saw seats instantly snapped up and placed on resale markets at many times the face value.

“There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward,” she wrote in a 2022 social media post. “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”

“It really pisses me off that a lot of [fans] feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them,” Swift added.

The incident prompted rowdy hearings in Congress and a federal antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Although Ticketmaster is not targeted in the complaint, the FTC does include a slide that it says is from a 2018 presentation deck, where Ticketmaster warns of “Serious negative economic impact if we move to 8 ticket limit across the board.” In March, President Trump issued an executive order to combat fraudulent ticket reselling practices.