Vladimir Putin goes submarining off Ukraine coast
It was hard to tell is Putin's beige number or his smile was the brighter presence on the visit. Photo: ABC
Thrill-seeking Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone on his latest adventure, this time a submarine ride off the Crimean peninsula.
Mr Putin plunged into the icy waters off the coast of Ukraine, which Moscow seized last year, to examine a shipwreck.
“Eighty-three metres is a pretty substantial depth,” Mr Putin said in televised comments after the dive. “It was interesting.”
• Putin says Sepp Blatter deserves a Nobel prize
• First women to graduate as US Army Rangers
• Phillip Ruddock opposes Abbott’s plan to gag greenies
He went underwater to view the Byzantine-era wreckage in the Black Sea off Crimea that included a trove of 10th century pottery.
It was hard to tell if Putin’s beige number or his smile was the brighter presence on the visit. Photo: ABC
The remains were discovered off the coast of Sevastopol by Russian divers earlier this year.
“It is a galleon that was transporting civilian cargo through the bay of Balaclava,” Mr Putin said.
“It is still to be investigated by experts. I have to say that there are not that many similar remains like this in the north of the Black Sea.”
Mr Putin is renowned for his eye-catching publicity stunts during his fifteen years at the helm of Russia. Other adventures have included flying with cranes, topless horseback riding and darting a tiger.
In 2009 he dove down around 1,400 metres to the bottom of the world’s deepest lake, Lake Baikal, in another mini-submarine.
Mr Putin also hopped into another miniature submersible in 2013 to take in a 19th century naval frigate shipwreck on the bed of the Baltic Sea.
The carefully choreographed photo opportunities are designed to buff up the image of the judo black belt president among ordinary Russians.
Mr Putin’s popularity has reached an all-time high in recent months of just under 90 per cent as Russia’s slavish state-run media has gone into overdrive to promote him since the seizure of Crimea in February 2014.
Although not every stunt has been a success. A dive in 2011 to find two ancient relics ended in embarrassment when it was revealed the urns had been deliberately placed there.
Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko on Monday lashed out over the trip saying it would “escalate” a 16-month separatist conflict in east Ukraine that Kiev accuses Moscow of masterminding.
– with ABC
