Putin preparing to board a Tu-160 strategic bomber at the Chkalovsky airfield on Tuesday en route to a war game.

President Vladimir Putin, sitting in the pilot's seat, broke the sound barrier Tuesday as he flew in a long-range bomber to a Northern Fleet outpost to attend a war game similar to one that embarrassed the armed forces last year.

After opening the MAKS 2005 air show at the Zhukovsky airfield, Putin was whisked to the Chkalovsky Air Force Base northeast of Moscow to board a waiting Tu-160 supersonic jet.

During a brief medical check shown on state television, a medical officer told Putin that his blood pressure was as good as a cosmonaut's. The 52-year-old president joked that he would not fly to space this time.

Putin, a retired security services colonel who has sailed in a submerged submarine and has flown to Chechnya in a two-seater Su-27 fighter, then attended a mission briefing by Igor Khvorov, the head of the strategic air command.

Putin sat in the commander's seat while Khvorov's deputy, Anatoly Zhikharev, piloted the 275-ton bomber, which can carry nuclear and conventional cruise missiles. Two navigators were also on board.

The plane, named Pavel Taran, broke the sound barrier over the Nizhny Novgorod region and then slowed down to fire a cruise missile at a target. An accompanying Tu-160 also fired a missile.


Khvorov, who piloted the second plane, said before takeoff that they would perform a daring low-level pass 200 meters above ground at a speed of 900 kilometers per hour, Interfax reported. Putin's Tu-160 was also to refuel in midair, Interfax reported.

Upon landing in Olenegorsk, in the Murmansk region, to attend the war game late Tuesday, Putin described the flight as a dream come true.

"I must say that it is a very pleasant feeling," he said on Channel One television. "I think it is similar to how you fly in a dream."

Putin said the planes had successfully fired new high-precision, long-range cruise missiles.

The war game, which entered its active phase Tuesday, is bringing together the Northern Fleet and the Air Force's long-range division. It is perhaps the most impressive of four exercises planned for August and September. An unprecedented Russian-Chinese exercise is to start Thursday in the Far East, and the U.S. State Department said Tuesday that it hoped the exercise would focus on strengthening stability in the region, Interfax reported.

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