It’s actually called a bathyscaphe and is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible.

On Monday, the ever so adventurous Russian president nestled himself into one so he could go check out an 18 century shipwreck that lies at the bottom of the black sea. Putin rode the small craft 83m down to see what remains of the naval frigate Oleg, which sank in 1869. The video is well edited, cutting to shots indicating radio communication and panning the controls – only problem is the one and only joke is in Russian. Or whatever.

Oleg, once a Byzantine trading ship, is currently being examined by marine biologists and Putin just couldn’t be left out, so he went to the scene which lies off the island of Gogland, 180km west of St. Petersburg.

When he surfaced, Putin announced:

I have to say that there are not that many similar remains like this in the north of the Black Sea.

[source: dailymail]