Putin and his jars

Nothing really surprising about this story but I do find it amusing.  In August, it was reported that Vladimir Putin,  the Prime Minister of Russia and novice scuba diver, just happened to “discover” two jars dating back to the sixth century BCE when scuba diving off the Taman Peninsula along the Russian coast. The media were, of course, in attendance.

Putin finds ancient jars while scuba diving

RUSSIA’S action-man Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pulled on a wetsuit overnight and went scuba diving at the site of a Greek ruin – and found two ancient jars.

Television footage showed two moss-covered vases with ear-like handles sitting neatly next to each other on top of the sandy bottom as Mr Putin swam into view.

“Treasure!” a dripping wet Mr Putin said with a big grin.

Yesterday it was revealed, in a moment of uncharacteristic candor, that Putin’s discovery was entirely staged.   The jars had been discovered by archaeologists some time before and left for Putin to find.

Spokesman: Putin’s Dive Treasure Find Was Staged

In video footage of the dive, Putin holds two fragments of what are said to be 6th century B.C. Greek jugs and says “the boys and I found them” in about six feet (two meters) of clear water. 

But his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview shown Tuesday on the Dozhd TV channel that the jugs had been found earlier by archaeologists and placed there for Putin. 

“Look, Putin didn’t find down there jugs that had lain there for many thousands of years. It’s obvious,” Peskov said in response to questions from the interviewers. 

“Of course, they were found in the course of an expedition several weeks or days earlier. Of course, they were left there or placed there. It’s completely normal. There’s no reason to gloat about this and everything else,” he said.