Posted on August 2, 2009 - by Venik

Action man Vladimir Putin turns submariner at Lake Baikal

He has flown a fighter jet, defeated black-belts on the judo mat and recently shot a tiger, albeit with a tranquilizer dart.

Vladimir Putin’s action man image is complemented by an athletic body, famously revealed on a fishing trip when he stripped off his shirt to show a fine pair of pecs. Now the Russian prime minister has added a new alter ego to his macho repertoire: Captain Nemo.

At the weekend Putin, 56, climbed into a cramped mini-submarine and dove almost a mile under the earth’s surface to the murky bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s largest and deepest body of fresh water, which lies in the heart of Siberia.

“The submergence is going excellently, and the scenery in the porthole is magnificent,” Putin told reporters with composure via a “hydrophone” as the tiny craft descended 1.4km to the deepest point in the southern curve of the lake. He was obliged to wear a special jump suit and pad around in his socks.

Putin joined the team of scientists studying gas hydrates and natural seepage of crude oil on the bottom of Baikal on Saturday. The two Mir mini-subs being used were employed to dive under the North Pole in 2007 and symbolically claim the Arctic’s hydrocarbon riches for Russia.

The prime minister admitted he was surprised by the gloominess of the underwater scene.

“We can see the bottom of Lake Baikal, which is very clean and beautiful. The water is pure from an ecological point of view, of course, but it is in fact a kind of plankton soup, as I would call it.”

Putin returned to the surface after four and a half hours looking a little groggy, according to witnesses at the lakeside. The state news agency, RIA Novosti, said he “felt good and was in excellent form”. His trademark dry wit was certainly intact. Asked if his next adventure would take him to space, he replied: “There’s enough work on Earth.”

Putin had arrived for the dive a day after clipping a satellite transmitter onto a Beluga whale called on Chkalov island in Russia’s far east.

While Putin’s successor as president, the diminutive Dmitry Medvedev, has tried to beef up his image by wearing leather jackets and claiming he pumps iron, he is widely seen as a softer figure. Putin, on the other hand, has effortlessly preserved his profile as a fearless alpha male.

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