ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Photo: Russian president Vladimir Putin submerges on board a mini-submarine into the waters of the Black Sea to explore a shipwreck. (AFP: Ria Novosti/Alexei Nikolsky)
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Russian president Vladimir Putin has burnished his action-man image by diving in a mini-submarine to explore a shipwreck off the coast of the Crimea peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine last year.
Mr Putin plunged to a depth of 83 metres seated alongside the pilot in the glass-bubble cabin of the Dutch-made vessel.
"83 metres is a pretty substantial depth," Mr Putin said in televised comments after the dive. "It was interesting."
He went underwater to view the Byzantine-era wreckage in the Black Sea off Crimea that included a trove of 10th century pottery.
Video: Vladimir Putin takes a submarine ride in the Black Sea during Crimea trip (Storyful)
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 has become known for his eye-catching stunts during his fifteen years in charge of Russia, that have included flying with cranes, riding topless on horseback and darting an endangered 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.
Photo: Russian president Vladimir Putin (C) listens to prime minister Dmitry Medvedev (L) after submerging into the waters of the Black Sea inside a research bathyscaphe as part of an expedition near Sevastopol, Crimea, August 18, 2015. (Reuters: Kremlin/RIA Novosti/Alexei Nikolsky)
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.
Not all of Mr Putin's eye-catching adventures have, however, been unmitigated successes.
A stunt in 2011 that saw a wet suited Mr Putin apparently find two ancient amphorae during a dive off the Russian coast close to Crimea drew widespread derision after it turned out the urns had been deliberately placed there.
Mr Putin is in the middle of his third visit to Crimea since he ordered out thousands of special forces troops to take control of the peninsula in 2014.
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.
Mr Putin, however, batted away the criticism over his visit and insisted the "blame" for a recent spike in violence in east Ukraine lay with the government forces.
During his visit to Crimea Mr Putin has held high-level meetings to discuss the region's abysmal economic record under Moscow rule, which even led the local governor to ask the Russian president to allow Ukrainians to work in the service industry.
The region is under tough Western sanctions that have seen its banking system hit and foreign firms pull out.
Tourism, a mainstay of the region's economy, has also plummeted.
Meanwhile, the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine are to meet in Berlin on Monday in a bid to bring an end to a new wave of violence in Ukraine, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said.
AFP
From other news sites:
- Daily Telegraph: Russian President Vladimir Putin pays visit to Crimea in a submarine
- Daily Mail: Is he trying out for a role as the next Bond villain? Vladimir Putin takes control of a research submarine in the Black Sea in latest bizarre stunt
- Irish Independent: Stunt-loving Vladimir Putin rides to bottom of Black Sea off Crimea
- Huffington Post (UK): Vladimir Putin Hits Peak SPECTRE in Crimea, Descending Into The Abyss In A Small Submarine
