海角大神

No Russian summer would be complete without some publicly-staged feat of derring-do听产测 President Vladimir Putin, who seems drawn to perform macho stunts as much out of a boyish sense of adventure聽as any public relations calculation.聽

This week saw President Putin 聽of the frigid Gulf of Finland in a 聽to view the amazingly well-preserved 聽鈥撀燼 steam-powered, wooden Czarist-era frigate that was accidentally sunk during war games in 1869.

Putin returned from his half-hour excursion to a depth of 60 meters effusing about both the modern, 6-seat C-Explorer-5 mini-sub and the remains of the Oleg, which he said was in such good shape he could read its name emblazoned on the hull.

"This submersible is different, impressions are also a bit different," said Putin, who knows a thing or two about submarines.聽

His first major crisis as president was the August 2000 Kursk disaster, a Russian ballistic missile submarine that sank in the Arctic with all hands, followed by a badly-botched rescue effort that exposed the incompetence, mendacity, and callousness of Russian officialdom to the world.

On at least two occasions, Putin has gone on , and dramatic are among the most popular stock images聽offered by the state news agency RIA-Novosti.

In 2009 he rode a 聽to the bottom of Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, and later reported that the lake's famously pure water actually looked to him like "plankton soup."

But the brand new mini-sub that took him to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland聽Monday聽was much better, he said, because it has a large plexiglass bubble that allows a full 360 degree view.聽 "It's very interesting. Impressive. 鈥� It鈥檚 like a time machine taking you to another period," he said.

The wreck of the Oleg 鈥� one of the last wooden warships, which went down in 15 minutes after being accidentally rammed by a new ironclad vessel 鈥� was discovered near Gogland Island in the Gulf of Finland by Russian researchers ten years ago. The Kremlin has given the Russian Geographical Society a major grant to study it and other Russian warships whose remains litter the bottom of the Baltic Sea after many wars.

"We didn't really do such work before. I think the time has come now, we can finally do that in terms of financial and technical capabilities. The moral duty towards the fatherland defenders goes without saying," Putin told reporters.

Putin frequently combines his publicity stunts with causes that he supports. Last year he took to the air in a motorized hang glider to guide a flock of endangered Siberian cranes onto their correct migratory path.

He has 听补苍诲 聽鈥撀燽oth times in the interests of science聽鈥撎�补苍诲 regularly attends conferences devoted to saving endangered animal species.

As wildfires raged across Russia three summers ago, Putin 听补苍诲 was shown on Russian TV expertly dousing an out-of-control forest fire.

Putin's extracurricular antics, which seem bound to continue as long as he remains in the Kremlin, have included bare-chested fishing and horseback riding, driving the trans-Siberian highway in , and multiple displays of his 聽at judo.

And, who knows? The summer's not over yet. Mount Everest beckons. Or better, perhaps, a challenging mountain in the former Soviet Union. It happens that there's a very impressive one in the Tien Shan range of central Asia, which the Republic of Kyrgyzstan 聽in honor of Vladimir Putin.