Putin, Berlo under fire for Crimea wine tasting

Ukraine has launched a criminal inquiry into wine-tasting by Russian President Vladimir Putin and 

ex-Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi after they allegedly quaffed a $100,000 bottle of centuries-old wine in Crimea, prosecutors said on Saturday. The Kremlin strongman and the disgraced billionaire reportedly cracked open a bottle of 1775 Spanish Jerez de la Frontera at the famed Massandra winery during a private visit by Berlusconi this month to the region Moscow annexed from Kiev in 2014.

The bottle was part of a legendary collection established by Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, who ran Crimea as governor-general in the first half of the 19th century. The Massandra winery was taken over by Russia along with <g data-gr-id="17">rest</g> of Crimean peninsula when Putin sent thousands of special forces troops to capture the Ukrainian region last year.