Aside from scaring world leaders, faithful pet Koni wound up in the news several other times before her death, and she remains the most famous of Vladimir Putin's dogs. In 2008, Reuters reported that Putin used a special GPS collar made for the dog to test Russia's high-tech satellite tracking system GLONASS. A year later, in 2009, Koni made the news again, when the willful pup ate all the catered food intended for a United Russia party meeting (via The Independent). Finally, according to The New York Times, Koni caused a stir in the U.S. after Putin bragged about his dog to George W. Bush. He remarked that Koni was "Bigger, stronger, faster — than Barney [Bush's dog]" — a comment Bush believed told him a lot about the macho Russian.
According to Russia Life magazine, Koni was such a celebrity in Russia that there was an official press release to announce her demise in 2014 at 15 years of age. Gone but not forgotten, Koni has also been immortalized in a book, first published back in 2005. The work is entitled "Connie's Stories," a children's book featuring a black labrador and the presidential helicopter on the front cover. Although the book is not political in nature, the short 60-page volume has a picture of Putin and his pooch on the last page.
[Featured image by Kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 3.0]
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