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Start your engines: Putin driving truck, opens newly-built Crimean Bridge

The Russian president got behind the wheel in the cabin of a Kamaz truck to lead a convoy of 35 vehicles along the 19-kilometer bridge

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin behind the wheel of the lead vehicle, a Kamaz truck, during a passage of construction machines on the Kerch Strait (Crimean) Bridge

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to a group of workers after driving a truck to officially open the Kerch Strait (Crimean) Bridge

© Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP

CRIMEAN BRIDGE, May 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has inaugurated the automobile part of the newly-built Kerch Strait Bridge. He got behind the wheel in the cabin of a Kamaz truck to lead a convoy of 35 vehicles (dump trucks, cranes, cement trucks, tanker trucks and other equipment) along the 19-kilometer bridge towards the Crimean seaside city of Kerch. He invited the CEO of the bridge building company, SGM-Most, Alexander Ostrovsky, into the cabin to join him for the brief journey.'

Cameras set up along the route recorded the brightest moments of the historic ride.

At the other end of the 19-kilometer bridge, in Crimea, Putin attended a brief open air show.

The Kerch Strait Bridge will open to cars and public transport on Wednesday, May 16.

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