Ukrainian prosecutors are preparing charges against the director of a winery in Russia-occupied Crimea for uncorking a 240-year-old bottle for Vladimir Putin and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The Russian president and his old friend spent last weekend in Crimea, touring ancient ruins and visiting the peninsula's prized Massandra winery.

Massandra, which has been nationalised after Russia's annexation of Crimea last year, has many bottles of rare wine dating back more than 200 years in its collection.

Russian television showed Mr Berlusconi examining a bottle from the cellars and asking the winery's director if he could try it.

Ukrainian media quoted prosecutors for Crimea saying they are looking into filing embezzlement charges against the winery's director who gave the valuable bottle to Mr Berlusconi.

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