Vladimir Putin attended the 14th International Bike Show which was held near Gasfort Lake during his short visit to Ukraine. He rode a three-wheeler and was at the head of bikers’column.
Vladimir Putin attended the 14th International Bike Show which was held near Gasfort Lake during his short visit to Ukraine. He rode a three-wheeler and was at the head of bikers’column.
He called his Harley Davidson Lehman three-wheeler decorated with Russian and Ukrainian flags “a pimped-out piece of metal,” and called the participants of the show “brothers.”
“A bike is the most democratic vehicle. It is the most challenging vehicle; it gives a sweet sense of freedom to its owner. It is possible to call it a symbol of freedom without any exaggeration,” Putin said.
“There are even such pimped-out pieces of metal as the one I rode today,” the prime minister said.
“You came here because you are free people, you can go anywhere, and it’s symbolic that there are a lot of Europeans here. It means that we are in the same space and we can live as one big human community without borders, as Mayakovski dreamed”, Putin said. The stage on which the prime minister spoke was in the form of submarine.
The prime minister spoke to the bikers and handed out autographs to them.
Putin signed several dozens of bikers’ special postcards and even a banknote to a biker from Prague. One of the bikers’ girlfriends asked Putin to sign her hand; Putin kissed her hand but didn’t sign it.
Putin asked the bikers not to ride too fast: “Let us say ‘no’ to reckless riding.”
Photo: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. (Right) head of the Night Wolves bike club Alexander Zaldostanov (Surgeon)
Photo: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. (Right) head of the Night Wolves bike club Alexander Zaldostanov (Surgeon)
“Long live the bike,” Putin said in Ukrainian to the bikers and to their “iron horses”.
The annual International Bike Show was held for the second time in Sevastopol. The Moscow Night Wolves bike club is among the organizers of the show. Last year Putin came to the Night Wolves bike center and handed the Russian flag to Alexander Zaldostanov (Surgeon), the president of the club. Night Wolves is the first bike club in the U. S. S. R. and in Russia which was founded in 1989 in Moscow.
Photo: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the bike show near Sevastopol which he visited during his visit to Crimea. (Right) head of the Night Wolves bike club Alexander Zaldostanov (Surgeon)
Photo: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the bike show near Sevastopol which he visited during his visit to Crimea. (Right) head of the Night Wolves bike club Alexander Zaldostanov (Surgeon)
A total of 50,000 people visited the show last year; the show was devoted to Sevastopol’s liberation from occupation. The current bike show is devoted to the Russian Black Sea Fleet (it is held prior to the Russian Navy Day) and the 65th anniversary of Victory Day. The concert, sports events and the performance of the ensembles of the Black Sea and Baltic fleets were held on July 23.
Photo: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and head of the Night Wolves bike club Alexander Zaldostanov.
Photo: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and head of the Night Wolves bike club Alexander Zaldostanov.
According to the organizers, bikers from Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan. Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Serbia, the United States and Israel attended the show.
