MOTORBIKE

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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RUSSIAN tyrant Vladimir Putin gave an Alaskan local a brand new £16,000 motorbike while visiting the US for his high-stakes summit with Donald Trump.

Mark Warren, 66, was given the bike after footage of him complaining he couldn’t fix his Soviet-era motorcycle went viral on Russian media.

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The retired fire inspector, who lives in Anchorage, where the US and Russian leaders met last Friday, rode off with a brand new Ural Gear Up sidecar.

Manufacturing firm Ural, a motors company founded in 1941 in Western Siberia when it was under Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, now operates in Kazakhstan.

Warren complained he was unable to obtain the correct parts to fix the motorcycle because of supply-and-demand issues and sanctions on Russia.

State-sponsored Russian media spotted Warren running errands on the bike one week before the Trump and Putin summit.

He said: “It went viral, it went crazy, and I have no idea why, because Im really just a super-duper normal guy.

“They just interviewed some old guy on a Ural, and for some reason they think its cool.”

On August 13, two days before the Trump-Putin summit to discuss the war in Ukraine, Warren received a call from a Russian journalist.

They told him: “They’ve decided to give you a bike.”

Warren said he was also sent a document noting the gift was arranged through the Russian Embassy in the States.

The Alaska man thought it was a scam – but after Trump and Putin departed Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson following their three-hour summit, he got another call about the bike.

Warren was told his new £16,000 bike was at the same base the world leaders had met at.

He was instructed to go to an Anchorage hotel for the handoff.

After arriving alongside his wife, he met six Russian men who presented him with the mind-boggling gift.

“I dropped my jaw,” he said.

“I went, ‘You’ve got to be joking me’.”

He said the men only asked to interview and picture him.

Two reporters and someone from the group got on the bike with him while he drove around the car park to show it off.

The lucky punter had reservations about the Ural being a malicious Russian scam.

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But he accepted the gift, which according to its paperwork was manufactured on August 12.

He said: “The obvious thing here is that it rolled off the showroom floor and slid into a jet within probably 24 hours.”

And he told the Daily Mail: “I’m dumbfounded. I guess I should probably write Putin a thank you letter or something.

“I haven’t. I’ve been so busy it hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

He added: “It’s super cool, you know? I mean, it’s just such a unique bike.”

It comes as Putin continues to wage his bloody war on Ukraine.

The despot unleashed a fresh breakthrough assault just hours before his summit with Trump.

And just hours after Trump’s summit with European allies, Russia blitzed Ukraine over Monday night with 270 drones and missiles.

The brutal attacks targeted energy and transport infrastructure.

Just before Zelesnky and his European counterparts were set to meet Trump on Monday, another vicious attack killed 14 people and injured dozens in Ukraine.

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