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Putin falls on his face during victory lap at ice hockey match

Someone’s sure to be skating on thin ice over this.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was on skates taking a victory lap around an ice rink after scoring a slew of goals in an exhibition match — when he tripped and fell flat on his face.

The leader had been waving proudly as he glided around the Bolshoi Ice Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.

Video shows Putin, 66, then unknowingly skating onto red carpet at the edge of the rink, falling face-first as his skates came to an unexpected stop.

Two other hockey players appeared to have anticipated his fall and raced to catch him, to no avail. They looked nervous as they failed to stop the embarrassing presidential slip-up.

Putin, dressed all in red as no. 11 for the Hockey Legends team, tried to shake off any embarrassment, quickly getting up and continuing to wave before skating off the rink.





His claim of nine goals — with others noting just eight — unsurprisingly made his team champions of the Night Hockey League’s Amateur 40+ division.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and hockey players Vyacheslav Fetisov, Pavel Bure, Alexei Kasatonov and Viktor Shalimov also played.





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