Vladimir Putin hit peak SPECTRE on Tuesday, the Russian president pictured diving to the bottom of the Black Sea to explore wreck of a Byzantine trading ship… or possibly a new underwater lair, replete with trapdoor above a shark pool.
The former KGB hood visited the recently annexed Crimea to carry out the 83-metre dive in a small submarine, part of a Russia Geographic Society event.
Vladimir Putin, right, sits on board a bathyscaphe as it plunges into the Black sea along the coast of Sevastopol, Crimea, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015
Before submerging into the abyss (like the Russian Ruble), Putin told reporters that the expedition was important to understand “the development of Russian statehood.”
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev joined Vladimir on the trip.
However, the visit to the disputed land irked officials in Kiev, with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko suggesting Putin should have run the excursion by him before heading on a lads' jolly.
Rumours that Putin later hit the beers in Sevastopol wearing a beige Mao suit, hauling a cat remain unconfirmed.