From the Trenches - Vlad the Excavator - Archaeology Magazine Archive

In addition to judo, shirtless fishing, race-car driving, and chasing whales with a crossbow (that actually happened), Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin now dives for sunken treasure. While visiting the Taman Peninsula on the Black Sea, site of several ancient Greek trading posts, Putin—accompanied by a media retinue— visited archaeological sites and took in a little scuba diving. Just moments after descending, he "discovered" two broken sixth-century Greek amphorae lightly buried in the silt. "Treasure!" he proclaimed upon surfacing with the finds, after which he treated reporters to an impromptu history lesson about how pots that were broken during transport were tossed overboard.