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President Moon Jae-in and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a picture in front of a PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games promotional booth, holding up dolls of the Olympic mascots Soohorang and Bandabi, at the Far Eastern University in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept. 6. (Yonhap News)


President Moon Jae-in and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, visited a booth promoting the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, following the Korea-Russia bilateral summit in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept. 6.

The two heads of state took a walk around the Far Eastern University campus and dropped by the promotional booths for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and for various other Russian provinces. 

After watching a drum performance by a group of Russian students dressed in traditional Korean Hanbok attire, President Moon gave Putin two small plush toys of the mascots for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Soohorang the white tiger and Bandabi the Asiatic black bear.

The impromptu visit to the university campus also caught the attention of local media. 

TASS, a Russian news agency, published an article and an accompanying video on Sept. 6 titled "President Moon gifts PyeongChang mascots to President Putin" (Президент Южной Кореи подарил Путину плюшевые игрушки). 

Komsomolskaya Pravda, a newspaper, published an article titled "Putin receives white tiger and Asiatic black bear plush toys from Moon" (Путин на ВЭФ-2017 получил в подарок от президента Южной Кореи плюшевого тигра и медведя). Also, Ria Novosti, an international news agency, published the article titled "Presidents Putin and Moon check out Far Eastern campus promotion booths" (Путин и президент Южной Кореи осмотрели выставку "Улица Дальнего Востока).