Hillary Clinton reveals how she bonded with Putin over tigers - and how he told her of the dramatic moment his mother 'rose from the dead'

Former Secretary of State reveals in memoir Hard Choices how she and the Russian President thawed relations over talk about his work saving Siberian tigers

Putin even invited Bill Clinton to tag polar bears in the countryside in a few weeks time, but in the end the trip did not happen

Putin also told her how his mother had been put on a pile of bodies outside their home after an outbreak of sickness

Putin's father pulled her body off the cart and discovered she was alive - Vladimir was born eight years later

During her many trips abroad the Air Force's 'famous Turkey taco sandwich' was her favorite



Hillary Clinton had a rare moment of bonding with Vladimir Putin over his passion for saving Siberian tigers, she writes in her new memoir published today.

The former US Secretary of State said that she was able to get the Russian President to shed his tough guy image by appealing to the animal lover inside of him.

He took her to his private office and gave her a lengthy lecture and even invited her husband Bill to tag polar bears in the wilderness with him.

Anecdotes: Clinton (at a book signing today) shared the stories of the world leaders she met during her time as Secretary of State

Clinton also inspired Putin to reveal a never-before-heard anecdote about how his mother was mistaken for a dead body and nearly taken away for burial when she was really just sick and unconscious.

She talks about both episodes in her book, ‘Hard Choices’, which was released today after being highly anticipated in Washington.

The memoir and barrage of interviews Clinton has given is being seen as the first step in her potential run for the Presidency in 2016.

Hard Choices covers the major events of her time as Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013 including the Arab Spring, the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi and attempts to find peace in the Middle East.

But it also includes offbeat anecdotes about relations between US and Russia, which were ‘reset’ by President Obama in 2009 but fell apart by Russia’s use of energy as a tool of foreign policy and its annexation of Crimea earlier this year.

She writes that overall Putin proved to be ‘thin-skinned and autocratic, resenting criticism and eventually cracking down on dissent and debate’.

But in meeting at his dacha, or holiday home, outside Moscow the two had a rare moment of solidarity.

Clinton knew that one of his passions was wildlife conservation so asked him out of the blue: ‘Tell me what you are doing to save the tigers in Siberia’.

Clinton writes: ‘He looked up in surprise. Now I had his attention’.

Putin led her down a long corridor to his private office, past dozing guards to a huge map of Russia when he launched into an ‘animated discourse’ in English about the fate of tigers, polar bears and other endangered species.

Putin even invited Clinton’s husband Bill to tag polar bears in the countryside in a few weeks time, but in the end the trip did not happen.

Cuddly: Hillary Clinton revealed that Putin warmed when she inquired about his conservation efforts - particularly his work to save Siberian tigers. He invited husband Bill on a polar bear-tagging trip

Another moment happened in September 2012 at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting he hosted in the Russian city of Vladivostok.

Clinton mentions she had been to a memorial in the city to the Nazi’s siege between 1941 and 1944 and it ‘struck a chord’ with Putin.

He reeled off a story she had never heard before and surprised Russian history experts she consulted afterwards.

Clinton writes: ‘During the war Putin’s father came home from the front lines for a short break.



‘When he approached the apartment where he lived with his wife, he saw a pile bodies stacked in the street and men loading them into a waiting flatbed truck.



‘As he drew nearer, he saw a woman’s legs wearing shoes that he recognised as his wife’s. He ran up and demanded his wife’s body.



‘After an argument the man gave in, and Putin’s father took his in his arms and, after examining her, realised she was still alive.



‘He carried her up to their apartment and nursed her back to health. Eight years later, in 1952, their son Vladimir was born’.

Relations between Clinton and Putin have taken a very different direction since. He branded her 'weak' and said that it is 'better not to argue with women' last week.



Putin was responding to Clinton's comments that he was behaving like Adolf Hitler by sending Russian troops into Eastern Ukraine.

In 2010 thousands of secret diplomatic cables sent by the US were published by Wikileaks, revealing embarrassing details of what they really thought about world leaders.

Clinton writes that it was a ‘long Thanksgiving holiday’ during which time she made dozens of phone calls to apologise.

Clinton also had face to face meetings with some leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who she spoke to at a meeting of the Organisation for Cooperation and Development in Kazakhstan.

In the cables American diplomats accused him of having a ‘penchant for partying hard meant that he never got sufficient rest’.

He is also branded ‘feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader.’

A wounded Berlusconi, who had suffered his own public indignities over his notorious ‘Bunga Bunga’ parties, told Clinton: ‘Why are you saying these things about me?

‘America has no better friend, you know me, I know your family’.

At his request Clinton made a speech in front of TV cameras about the importance of relations between the two countries to smooth things over.

Shock: Clinton said that Putin surprised her with the grisly tale of how his sick mother was nearly mistaken as being dead eight years before he was born

She writes: ‘No one wished these words had stayed secret more than I did’.

Clinton spent two thousand hours on board her Boeing 757 whilst travelling the globe as part of her job, the equivalent of 87 full days.

She describes how the air stewardesses used to buy local foods wherever they went such as smoked salmon from Ireland, but the ‘Air Force’s famous turkey taco sandwich’ was always a favourite.

On the long flights the journalists, staff and crew on board amused themselves by celebrating birthdays that took place mid-trip and watching weepy romantic comedies.

They also never grew tired of the yellow pyjamas worn by Richard Holbrooke, the former special advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clinton writes.

On one occasion they were watching Breach, a 2007 historical drama about an FBI agent who spied for the Russians in the 1980s and 90s.

At one point the main character, played by Robert Hanssen, sparked a wave of laughter when he said: ‘Can’t trust a woman in a pantsuit. Men wear the pants. The world doesn’t need any more Hillary Clintons’.

Elsewhere Clinton says that when she was on the road she was warned to leave her Blackberry on her plane and take the battery out to stop it being compromised.

She had to put up an opaque tent inside her hotel room to stop hidden cameras from recording what she was reading.