Action-man Putin dons pantsuit to explore Crimea shipwreck in mini-submarine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has burnished his action man image by diving down in a mini-submarine to explore a shipwreck off the coast of the Crimea peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine last year.

Putin - wearing a beige pantsuit - plunged down to a depth of 83 metres seated alongside the pilot in the glass-bubble cabin of the Dutch-made vessel on Tuesday.

“83 metres is a pretty substantial depth,” Putin told journalists in televised comments after the dive. “It was interesting.”

The Kremlin strongman went underwater to view the Byzantine-era wreckage in the Black Sea off Crimea that included a trove of 10th century pottery.

The remains were discovered off the coast of Sevastopol by Russian divers earlier this year.