US boxer Roy Jones Jr. asks Putin for Russian citizenship

And now he’s friends with another notorious strongman: Russian President Vladimir Putin. “And I love when people love me”, Jones replied.

Russian Federation annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March last year, triggering the deepest crisis since the Cold War in its relations with the U.S. and the European Union, which imposed sanctions that have helped push Russia’s economy into its first recession in six years. “On the contrary, according to the available data, it is concentrating its units there, including those reinforced with military hardware”, Putin said.

The Russian president is famous for his carefully choreographed PR-stunts, including shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer gun in 2008, tagging a sedated polar bear in 2010 and guiding a flock of cranes in 2012.

Speaking by radio while still under water, Putin said he hoped the find would shed light on Russia’s historical development.

In Yakunin’s tenure at Russian Railways, he has overseen wide-ranging changes, including the introduction of high-speed rail on selected routes, but the company has been forced to make major cost cuts during the economic downturn. Regarding the shipwreck, which was discovered off the coast of Sevastopol by Russian divers this year, Putin said: ‘It is still to be investigated by experts.

Yakunin, unlike most top Russian officials, declined to publish his annual income declarations, saying it was “unseemly” to talk about one’s pay.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, walks with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev after plunging aboard a submersible craft into the Black Sea. The core group includes Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-linked political analyst.

Yakunin told RIA Novosti state news agency that he expected to quit his post after a governor is elected in the Kaliningrad region at a September poll and then appoints new senators.