MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday took a co-pilot’s seat in a nuclear-capable strategic bomber on a flight that appeared aimed toward bolstering his picture forward of next month’s election he is all however sure to win.
Putin’s 30-minute flight in a Tu-160M supersonic strategic bomber additionally appeared meant to ship a reminder of Russia’s nuclear would possibly amid hovering tensions with the West over the preventing in Ukraine.
Putin, 71, who’s operating as an unbiased candidate, depends on a decent management over Russia’s political system that he has established throughout 24 years in power. Friday’s demise of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny despatched a chilling reminder of the Kremlin’s ruthless crackdown on dissent and dealt a heavy blow to the beleaguered Russian opposition.
On Thursday, Putin, clad in a flight swimsuit, boarded the warplane at a snow-covered airfield of an aircraft-making plant within the Volga River metropolis of Kazan that has constructed the heavy bombers because the Soviet instances.
The plant has acquired state orders to supply a modernized model of the Tu-160 bomber that first flew within the Nineteen Eighties and was code-named Blackjack by NATO.
The plane Putin flew was one of many first such revamped bombers constructed, outfitted with new engines and avionics and designated Tu-160M.
Talking to reporters after the flight, Putin praised the brand new plane as “glorious,” noting that it has huge enhancements in comparison with the preliminary model.
Thursday’s flight marked not less than the third time he acquired in a cockpit of a warplane. In 2000, he took a co-pilot’s seat in a Su-27 fighter to fly to Chechnya throughout separatist preventing there and in 2005 he co-piloted a Tu-160 throughout navy drills.
As a part of the Kremlin efforts to venture a picture of an action-loving and bodily robust chief, Putin additionally took a co-pilot’s seat in an amphibious airplane, flew a paraglider and drove a racing automotive and heavy vehicles.
He additionally drove a heavy truck to a gathering in Kazan on Thursday, one in every of a sequence of marketing campaign journeys forward of the March 15-17 presidential election.
With distinguished critics who could challenge him either jailed or living abroad and most unbiased media banned, Putin’s reelection is all however assured. He faces a token opposition from three different candidates nominated by Kremlin-friendly events represented in parliament.
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