A flock of Siberian Cranes, which President Vladimir Putin tried to help with their flight to the south, was not allowed in for the winter by Uzbek border guards. The Vedomosti newspaper reported this on April 12.

In the fall of 2012, the birds were flown to the border of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, where they were planned to be released into the wild. The head of the Flight of Hope project, Alexander Sorokin, told the publication about this. However, scientists were unable to obtain final consent from the Uzbek border service to release the birds. As Sorokin said, Tashkent, on the one hand, allowed the release of the Siberian Cranes, but on the other hand, asked to keep in mind that in this place the birds could be shot from the Afghan side.

Ornithologists tried to find another place to release the Siberian Cranes, but in the end they took them to the Oksky Nature Reserve in the Ryazan region, where they spent the winter. The head of the Flight of Hope hopes that Putin will discuss the topic of Siberian Cranes on April 15 at a meeting with President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov.

Vedomosti was unable to obtain official confirmation of Sorokin’s words from the Uzbek Embassy and the Russian Foreign Ministry. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the project with the Siberian Cranes “is really very complex and, unfortunately, not always everything works out.”

In October 2012, Rosprirodnadzor already reported that Putin’s Siberian Cranes refused to fly south and would spend the winter in the Ryazan region. As the department explained then, six birds could not join the flock of wild cranes with which they were supposed to get to Central Asia. How this story is connected with the episode with the Uzbek border guards is not explained in the Vedomosti article.

Scientists had to help the Siberian Cranes fly to their wintering place, since they were raised in an incubator and there were no adults in their flock capable of showing the birds the way to the south. In one of the stages of training the Siberian Cranes in September 2012, Vladimir Putin took part, who flew with the birds on a hang glider as a leader.

Earlier it was reported that one of the Siberian Cranes managed to fly to Kazakhstan together with wild cranes. However, there he was attacked by dogs. The bird was rescued by local residents and then handed over to Russian scientists. Vedomosti writes that it turned out to be a male named Para. According to the publication, this crane is accustomed to people and they decided not to release it into the wild. Now the couple lives in the Ivanovo Zoo, where there is a sign on its cage that this bird flew with the president.

Uzbek border guards did not allow Putin's Siberian Cranes to go to their winter quarters