Vladimir Putin gives £5,500 watch to metalworker

First published: 16-09-2009

Vladimir Putin responded to one man's calls for the president to give him something to remember him by, according to recent reports.

It seems that during a visit to an arms factory in the town of Tula earlier this month, during which time the Russian prime minister was inspecting weapons, a worker asked a bemused-looking Putin to give him a present as a memory of what took place that day.

Mr Putin was unable to think of anything to hand to the man, who then retorted that the ex-KGB man's watch would be suitable.

Not one to back down to the metalworker in the circumstances, Putin went ahead and removed the watch from his wrist - a £5,500 Blancpain model - and gave it to the man.

The Daily Telegraph, which noted that the watch was of an equivalent value to the average Russian wage, highlighted how the leader "spontaneously" took another watch off his wrist, giving it to a shepherd's son in Siberia in a "choreographed Kremlin propaganda exercise".

Mr Putin stepped down from his presidential role last May to hand over to Dmitry Medvedev.