Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on Saturday in the Crimean peninsula, which is celebrating the ninth anniversary of its annexation by Moscow, according to images broadcast on state television.
Putin visited the Korsun Art School and children's center in Chersonese, outside the port of Sevastopol, the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The president, according to the video published on the Telegran channel of the state network Rossía-1, was accompanied by the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, and other authorities.
Previously, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, had announced that on the anniversary of the "reunification with Crimea", as Moscow calls the annexation of the peninsula, Putin would participate by videoconference in the inauguration of a cultural center.
Both the School of Art and the Korsún children's center, built by military builders, are part of the first stage of the Chersonese Taurico historical-archaeological park.
"It is the idea of the metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhovsk, Tikhon, which the president (Putin) endorsed and which is embodied at an incredible rate thanks to military builders," the governor of Sevastopol wrote on Telegram. Razvozhaev indicated that everyone was prepared for a video conference with Putin.
"Finally, the president came in person. By car. He himself was behind the wheel. On this historic day the president is always with Sebastopol and the people of Sebastopol. Our country has an incredible leader," added the governor.
