MOSCOW -- The International Olympic Committee says Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin presided over the release of two snow leopards into a wildlife sanctuary near the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic games.
The committee says Putin and the IOC's Jean-Claude Killy witnessed the two male tigers freed into a nature preserve in the Caucasus mountains near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Organizers on Monday said the release was the beginning of an effort to reintroduce the big cats to the region, where they are extinct. Plans call for releasing females later.
Putin pledged to reintroduce the animals to the Caucasus after Russia won the Winter Olympics in 2007, the IOC said. The two male leopards released Saturday were imported from Turkmenistan.
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