Looks like Siberia and Alaska are even closer than we’d thought! The seven senior government officials who died in a helicopter crash earlier this month in the Altai region of Siberia were apparently enjoying Sarah Palin’s favorite pastime: aerial wolf gunning. Or, sheep gunning, to be exact. Endangered wild argali sheep gunning, to be even more exact.

When the carcasses of these rare, curly-horned sheep (pictured) showed up in photos of the wreckage, conservationists were outraged and the Russian media had a new scandal they’re calling “Altaigate.”

While Sarah Palin’s penchant for aerial gunning was one of the first stumbling blocks in her ill-fated vice presidential run, the practice is perfectly legal in Alaska as long as the government grants permission. In Russia, however, all aircraft-based hunting is prohibited, to say nothing of government officials hunting endangered species.

Such a scandal! Surely there must be some kind of local magistrate whose job it is to combat this poaching epidemic. What’s that? He was in the helicopter, too?

“Among the seven federal, regional and local officials killed in the crash was Viktor Kaimin, the Altai republic's top official charged with protecting the region's wildlife and whose committee was responsible for issuing hunting licenses.”

Wow. We’ll keep you posted if Altaigate gets any more absurd, but that’s hard to imagine at this point.

Poaching by Helicopter a Popular Passtime [The Moscow Times]
Aerial Wolf Gunning 101 [Slate]