Sorry, Vladimir Putin, but it’s not as big as you say it is.  Russians are casting doubts over Putin casting a line and catching a really big fish.

The Kremlin last week released a video of the hyper-macho Russian president pulling a Giant Pike out of a lake while on a fishing trip in Siberia.  Except Russians don’t believe it. 

Bloggers point out the video seems almost exactly like photos of one of Vlad’s earlier manly adventures in the wilderness several years ago.  The Kremlin denies this, but then, reporters weren’t invited along to confirm or deny.

And then there’s the fish.  The Kremlin says it weighed 21 kilo and the game warden says he’s never seen one that big before.  Except that apparently every one of Russia’s 25 million fishing enthusiasts say there’s no way that thing could be 21 kilograms.

Even pro-Kremlin columnist Maxim Kononenko wrote, “Any fisherman can see that it simply cannot weigh 21 kilograms. For one thing, fish of that size are extremely rare. For another, it would be up to two meters long and you’d be able to fit a bucket in its mouth.”

The episode might be a sign that the cult of Putin has seen its glory days, as the Kremlin has been put on the defensive over whether the man really caught a fish.