Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that Putin has given a Kyrgyz girl a Newfoundland puppy as a gift, according to sputniknews.cn.

The Kyrgyz girl , Dasha Yaitskaya, had asked Putin for the animal in an email during the annual Direct Line on April 16, 2015.

Dasha says she once saw a picture of Vladimir Putin with a dog and assumed he loved animals. She had always dreamed of owning a Newfoundland and now her dream has come true.

Local reports said the dog was bred in a nursery in neighboring Kazakhstan, and was handed to the girl by the Russian ambassador in the Kyrgyz Republic, Andrey Krutko.

Even though the puppy had already been named Max, the schoolgirl decided to give him another name: Dar, which means “gift”.