In 2010, the Year of the Tiger, about 3,600 of the majestic predators remain in the wild, their existence threatened by habitat-loss and poaching.

If there is one man who can give hope to a species whose numbers have plummeted from 100,000 only a century ago, it would be Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Beginning Sunday, Putin and the World Bank will co-host the International Forum on Tiger Conservation, bringing together the leaders of 13 nations to discuss what could be the best and last chance to save the wild tiger. The summit will feature high level officials from every major tiger country, a first in the history of tiger conservation.

Putin, the former KGB officer, has a tough political image. But in the conservation community, he is first and foremost a champion of the tiger. For him this is personal.

In 2008 he received a female tiger cub as a birthday gift. Mashenka spent at least three days sleeping in a wicker basket at Putin’s home before being given to a zoo. The pair met the Russian press and images of Putin with Mashenka flooded the media.

In the same year, Putin ventured to Siberia’s conservation area where he got between a rampaging tigress and some volunteers. After tranquilizing the animal, he helped put a tracking collar on her and she is now featured on his personal website. “Does she see anything?” an official asked of the tranquilized tigress. “Yes, she does. And she’ll remember you,” Putin joked.

Barney Long, the head of the WWF U.S. Tiger Program said the scale of the summit is “almost solely down to Putin. It is he who is reaching out, turning this from technical meetings into a real political event.”

“It’s not often that heads of government do get involved to this degree,” said Sabri Zain of TRAFFIC, an organization trying to halt illegal trafficking and poaching.

Putin will be joined in St. Petersburg, Russia, by the leaders of the last remaining countries where tigers exist in the wild, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. That is less than 7 percent of their historic range.

“Russia is well placed to host the summit. They are already a leader in terms of taking steps to try and save their own species. The Siberian tiger is one of few success stories,” Zain said.

Russia’s far east is now home to roughly 400 Siberian tigers, accounting for 9 percent of wild tigers in the world.