Rather unfortunately known as the “clumsiest” Soviet car, the ZAZ-968 was the first vehicle Putin drove. His mother won it in the lottery and gave it to her son as a gift.
Putin covered thousands of kilometers in the car before selling it to one of his KGB colleagues. When he became president he was reunited with the very same ZAZ-968 and it now resides proudly in his garage.
Russia’s president is a huge fan of Soviet cars and in 2005 he purchased
Putin got his hands on another classic straight out of the USSR, a Lada NIVA 4X4, to use for fishing trips. “It’s 100 percent guaranteed to pass where Mercedez cannot, it drives well in the snow,” he said.
Anyone who witnessed the opening ceremony of the Kerch Strait Bridge (aka Crimean Bridge) on May 15,
Despite preferring domestically made cars Putin rarely turn his nose up at the chance to test drive foreign cars. In 2017 he rocked up at the ancient Valaam Monastery in a Mercedes ML with his driver in the passenger seat.
The Yo-Mobil was a planned series type hybrid electric car that never saw the light of day aside from a few prototypes. Putin managed to drive one before the project was scrapped in 2014.
In 2010 Putin took a Formula 1 car for a spin. “Even in my Zaporozhets (his first car, the ZAZ-968) I had more space,” he said. Despite feeling a little cramped he didn’t hold back and put
Russia’s leader will try his hand at most things, even driving a massive combine harvester, like he did when he was Prime Minister in 2011. Together with former President Dmitry
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