Months after it was released in the wild by Vladimir Putin, a Siberian tiger is being fingered as the culprit behind a cross-border raid that has resulted in the deaths of a number of goats in north-east China.

The big cat was one of three freed by the Russian president in one of the wild animal-themed public relations events favoured by his spin doctors. Now, however, Chinese state media have reported local authorities as claiming that the tiger, known as Ustin, has killed two goats. Three others are still reported missing, according to the official Xinhua news agency. According to a witness, the dead goats’ skulls had been crushed with puncture holes “the size of a human finger clearly visible”.

Ustin reportedly crossed into China in October with another of Putin’s tigers, both of which carry tracking devices.

It is not the first time that the tigers have been accused of killings after crossing from Russia to China. Another of the big cats, known as Kuzya, was alleged in October to have attacked a henhouse in north-eastern China, raising concerns that farmers might hunt it down. On that occasion, the alleged victims were five chickens at a farm in Luobei county, Heilongjiang province. Xinhua did not say how Kuzya was identified as the culprit, although she had been fitted with a tracking device that had previously signalled that she was entering China.

The tiger cubs had been found starving two years earlier in the Ussuri Taiga forest near the Russia-China border, Russian media reported. They were rehabilitated, taught to hunt, and released back into the wild. The other tigers remain in Amur.

Russia adopted a national strategy to protect the endangered Amur tiger in July 2010. Putin has been personally involved in the promotion of conservation efforts.