Putin Takes Sub Ride in Black Sea During Crimea Trip

During his visit to Crimea 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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to local residents and the media after plunging below the waves aboard a submersible craft into the Black Sea, in Sevastopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2… This video was licensed from Grab Networks.

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oldest political allies appears set to leave his post as head of Russian Railways, the country’s largest employer, for a position with less influence.

Mr Putin, who has a penchant for adventurous stunts, previously explored the Gulf of Finland and Lake Baikal in submersibles.

The 46-year-old boxer, famed for winning world titles in four different weight categories, drank tea with Putin in Crimea’s naval port city of Sevastopol, photographs released by the Kremlin showed. He also went scuba diving in the Kerch Strait that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, where he brought up fragments of ancient Greek jugs, or amphorae, that his spokesman later admitted had been planted.

Speaking over the radio while still underwater, Putin said he hoped the discovery would shed light on Russia’s “historical development”. He ended the short dispatch by saying “Big hug!” – which happened to be the first thing Medvedev gave Putin when he returned to land, according to the AP.

State companies may lose more top officials in the fall as the Kremlin seeks to revive the economy by improving their performance, Igor Yurgens, vice president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, said by phone on Tuesday.