GOGLAND ISLAND /Leningrad Region/, July 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is going down to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland in a bathyscaphe. The head of state will see the Shch-308 Semga submarine that sank during the Great Patriotic War. The 50-meter dive onboard the Sea Explorer-3 will last about an hour.

During the submergence, one of the divers will mount a memorable plaque on the site of the submarine’s wreck in Putin’s presence. After that the lights will go off and the ceremony participants will observe a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of the killed submariners.

Shch-308 Semga submarine

The construction of the Shch-308 Semga submarine started in 1930 at the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard. In 1935, it joined the Baltic Fleet. In September 1942, the submarine was deployed near the island of Uto in the Baltic Sea. Later the captain reported that three enemy vessels with total displacement of 16,000 tonnes had been destroyed. However, the Semga was damaged and did not return from the voyage.

On May 2, 2018, during the expedition "Bow to the Ships of the Great Victory" the hulk of the submarine was found when scanning with a sonar the sea bottom north of the island of Bolshoi Tyuters. After the submarine’s identification it was found that the vessel sank between October 24 and 26, 1942, after touching off a German mine. There were 40 crew members on board the submarine.

The president’s experience

Putin already has experience of deep diving. In August 2015, he plunged in a bathyscaphe more than 80 meters deep during a Russian Geographic Society expedition in Crimea. Then the president observed the wreckage of vessels dating back to the 9th and 10th centuries. The head of state said he could reach this depth in a diving suit but would rather leave it to professional divers.

In July 2013, Putin plunged in a bathyscaphe to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland near the island of Gogland to the wreckage site of the frigate Oleg which occurred in the 19th century. In August 2011,while visiting the excavation site on the place of the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria he went to the bottom of the Taman Bay, from where he took two amphoras. He made this dive with a scuba set.

Putin first dived with a scuba set in 2009 with participants of the expedition "Mirs on Baikal." Then he also plunged in the Mir-1 bathyscaphe to the bottom of the lake. During the three-hour dive he studied both the state of Lake Baikal and the scientific and research capabilities of the vehicle.