A Changed Russia Arches an Eyebrow at Putin’s Staged Antics

There have long been suspicions that his exploits were not spontaneous. Still, it was remarkable to see Mr. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri S. Peskov, surrounded by a panel of exceedingly skeptical journalists, trying to explain as delicately as possible that Mr. Putin’s much-hyped dive in August had been staged.

“Look,” Mr. Peskov said good-naturedly in the broadcast, which was released late Tuesday. “Putin did not find an amphora that had been lying on the bottom for many thousands of years. That is obvious.”

Especially one that had been cleaned to sterile condition.

“They either left them there, or they put them there,” he said. “This is completely normal. It is totally not a pretext for malicious joy and so forth.”