MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin burnished his action man image on Tuesday by diving down in a mini-submarine to explore a shipwreck off the coast of the Crimea peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine last year.

Putin — wearing a beige pantsuit— plunged down to a depth of 83 metres seated alongside the pilot in the glass-bubble cabin of the vessel.

“83 metres is a pretty substantial depth,” Putin told journalists in televised comments after the dive. “It was interesting.” The Kremlin strongman went underwater to view the Byzantine-era wreckage in the Black Sea off Crimea that included a trove of 10th century pottery.

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,” 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.” 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 Baikal in another mini-submarine.

The carefully choreographed photo opportunities are designed to buff up the image of the judo black belt president among ordinary Russians.

Putin’s popularity has reached an all-time high in recent months of just under 90 per cent as Russian state-run media has gone into overdrive to promote him since the seizure of Crimea in February 2014.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2015

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