Vladimir Putin drove a new Russian SUV on Friday as part of a showcase for a revived car brand.
The president, whose barrage of Kyiv continued into a third day on Saturday, test-drove the Volga K50 SUV in Nizhny Novgorod.
Mr Putin, who worked as a taxi driver to boost his income after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, drove the car between production buildings at the Volga plant and was joined by a company worker in the passenger seat.
The K50 model is Volga’s flagship car, a brand reborn after being one of the best-known names in Russia‘s Soviet-era industry.
Produced at a plant previously operated by Volkswagen, the car is based on Chinese technology and was described by industry experts as a Russian-branded model derived from a Chinese-developed platform.
Mr Putin toured the plant and was shown the assembly lines as well as equipment used to manufacture the cars before signing the bonnet of a Volga K50.
He gave a speech at the forum and met Gleb Nikitin, governor of Nizhny Novgorod, while visiting the newly-opened Volga Arena sports complex.
According to the Kremlin, Mr Putin drove a Renault Formula 1 car in November 2010 at speeds of up to 240kph (150mph).
Vladimir Putin drove a new Russian car on Friday as part of the reboot of a Soviet-era motor brand
As strikes continued on Kyiv, the president signed the bonnet of a Volga K50 SUV
He reportedly wore a helmet emblazoned with ‘Russia’ and the country’s emblem and an F1 jumpsuit with his initials embroidered.
After several hours on a special track in the Leningrad region, Mr Putin – then prime minister – said: ‘Not bad for a first time.’
The drive came a month after Russia signed a deal to bring a grand prix to Sochi, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014.
Extended in 2017 to run until 2025, the contract was terminated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
