A video of Vladimir Putin speaking English has resurfaced, surprising some people that the Russian President is multilingual.
Putin rarely speaks English and has only done so on a few public occasions. And despite being fluent in it, he will use a translator during negotiations and official meetings.
In the video of him from 2013, Putin appealed in English for the 2020 World Expo to be held in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Despite the video being posted almost nine years ago, it's been flooded in recent weeks with hundreds of new comments from people who were surprised he could also speak English.
Some said they hadn't heard him speak a language other than Russian, but others pointed out that since he lives in a European country and is also a former KGB agent, it should be expected that he also spoke English.
"Being bilingual or multilingual is pretty common in European countries. I don't know how people are amazed by this," one person said.
Alongside Russian and English, Putin can also speak German.
The Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has previously said that Putin's English is good enough that he sometimes corrects his own interpreters.
"In free discourse, at the sidelines of summits, he often speaks in English by himself. But during negotiations and when he is conducting an official meeting, of course he communicates through a translator," Peskov says.
"However, he practically understands English completely and sometimes even corrects the translators. A translator will always have a crisis moment. I worked as a translator at a high level myself, which is why I'm familiar with the stress of it."
But this 2013 video isn't the only time he's been onscreen speaking English. In 2017, American director Oliver Stone broadcast a series of interviews with Putin where the President switched between English and Russian.
But his most viral display of speaking - or in this case, singing - in English was in 2010 when he performed 'Blueberry Hill' by Fats Domino at a children's charity fundraiser in St Petersburg.
