Putin’s set-up ancient jug find ‘completely normal’ says PR aide

Vladimir Putin’s press secretary has said a now-famous television video of the Russian prime minister diving to the bottom of a bay and discovering ceramic jugs from the sixth century was, in fact, a set-up.

In an interview given as part of a campaign to open-up the Russian leader to domestic voters, Dmitri Peskov said that the jugs had actually been found by archeologists during an expedition “several weeks or days before”. They were then placed in six feet of water, where Mr Putin could find them.

“Naturally, they either left them there, or they put them there,” Mr Peskov said. “This is completely normal. It is totally not a pretext for malicious joy and so forth.”

In an interview with Dozhd TV, a web-based news and analysis channel, Mr Peskov chuckled and said he was on holiday when the episode was filmed, so he “could not have thought it up”.

Mr Peskov went on to say, however, that Mr Putin’s public relations operation is less extensive than outsiders tend to think. “In general, regarding his ‘legend’ and so forth, Putin doesn’t need press secretaries or image-makers or public relations firms or anyone else,” he said. “In fact, most of the time, he does it himself.”

He then went to praise former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev as a man who has played a largely positive role in the nation’s history – Mr Putin’s recent announcement to stand for the country’s presidency again have raised comparisons with the long-serving Communist leader, in power for 18 years.

“Brezhnev wasn’t a minus for our country, he was a huge plus,” Mr Peskov said. “He laid a foundation for the country’s economics and agriculture.”

Mr Peskov’s rare interview with a TV station critical of the government appeared to reflect authorities’ concerns about a negative attitude to Mr Putin’s re-election bid among the nation’s intellectuals.

Mr Peskov acknowledged that such critical sentiment was strong among Moscow residents, but wasn’t shared by people in the provinces.

“There are people who think the atmosphere in the country is suffocating and it is time to escape to the banks of the River Thames while others want three percentage points off their taxes to get their farm going,” Mr Peskov said.

“But we are all united by one goal – we want our country to leap forward.

“We very much like to explain it to people who sit in expensive restaurants where there are no free tables left, eat expensive Italian meals costing 1,200 roubles ($36) per plate and fret about the fate of their country.”