MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented a six-month-old Newfoundland puppy to a schoolgirl from Kyrgyzstan, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"That’s true. We received a letter addressed to the president from the girl, saying her family could not afford to buy the dog," Peskov said.

"It was handed over [to the new owner] with the help of the Russian embassy," he added.

The girl, Dasha Yaitskaya, told Russian ambassador in Kyrgyzstan Andrey Krutko that she had always dreamed of owning a Newfoundland.

Since, however, they are not bred in Kyrgyzstan and having seen a photograph of Russia's leader with a dog, the girl decided to ask the president - himself a dog lover - to make her dream come true.

The puppy was brought to the Kyrgyz town of Balykchi from a nursery in neighbouring Kazakhstan.