In four hours at his country residence, Vladimir Putin talked at length about
his desire for cooperation with other countries but blamed them for
provoking conflict, attacked them for abuses of human rights and democratic
freedoms, and gave not an inch on the clashes between Russia and the West.
“I am not President of the Russian Federation to bring our country to the
brink of catastrophe, on the contrary,” he said at the start of an interview
on Friday night that continued until nearly midnight.
“Of course, I am a pure and absolute democrat,” he said. “But you know what
the problem is – not a problem, a real tragedy – that I am alone. There are
no such pure democrats in the world. Since Mahatma Gandhi, there has been no
one.”
The Kremlin had summoned a newspaper from each of the G8 countries –Britain,
the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, Italy, France and Germany – and employed an
international public relations company to “put Russia’s message across”
before the annual summit, which begins on Wednesday in Heiligendamm,
Germany. The Novo Ogarevo residence is where Mr Putin retreats most
evenings; his cavalcade, with four outriders, can cover the eight miles in
minutes, along a highway lined with new Ralph Lauren and Prada boutiques,
but for ordinary commuters in Moscow’s immobile traffic it would take two
hours.
The two-storey lemon-and-white villa is in a claustrophobic setting, behind
steel gates embossed with Russian eagles, in a tiny clearing among 90ft
birch and fir trees. Inside, the newly refurbished rooms are of immaculate
blandness – grey-green rugs, reproduction walnut furniture, peach-coloured
drapes and picture lights illuminating empty walls, like a John Lewis
showroom of unwanted items after the winter sale.
A Russian television crew knocked balls around the pool table under a screen
showing a gangster film of unremitting mutilation as the delay for the
scheduled interview stretched to two hours. The Kremlin press squad declared
that everyone should prepare for a surprise dinner that the President would
host to show his friendliness – and by the way, his remarks would be under
embargo and not publishable until Monday.
It is not often, these days, that media management is so poor that it warrants
comment, but the Kremlin, having gone to such lengths to stage the audience
with the President, then threw away, in that reflex of control, the pages of
newsprint cleared by editors in seven countries to receive his words. The
man from Nikkei let out a long exhalation of disbelief; the Globe and
Mailslumped into a leatherette swivel chair to break the news to Toronto; Le
Figaro fixedly studied a crystallised fruit pinched between thumb and
forefinger.
“You can’t phone the White House on Sunday,” said a Kremlin press apparatchik,
incredulous that any other leader might overtake Mr Putin in the competition
for the airwaves, apparently ignorant of the Bush Administration’s
round-the-clock advocacy or the sour tenacity of the Blair press machine
even in its fading hours.
For all the trappings of hospitality, Mr Putin’s message, when finally
delivered, was uncompromising on all the fronts that threaten to scupper the
G8 meeting: not just the US plans for missile defence, but Iran, Kosovo,
human rights, protection for foreign investors and Nato expansion.
Mr Putin listened to questions intently, scratching the thin hair on the back
of his head, then gave five-minute answers, citing figures for oil
contracts, weapons systems and fish exports without hesitation, with all
President Clinton’s command of detail but without the Clinton smile or
mantra that the world is a hopeful place. He is short – about 5ft 7in – but
disproportionately broad-shouldered, more tanned than the pallor of the
usual photographs and favours direct eye-contact. When President Bush
remarked that he had looked into Mr Putin’s eyes and seen his soul, he may
not have been given the choice.
Mr Putin argued that “an arms race is unfolding”, but blamed the US for
starting it by quitting the 1972 AntiBallistic Missile Treaty in 2002,
planning to deploy missiles in outer space and developing smaller nuclear
weapons. He cautioned that “we do not want to use our resources” for an arms
race and that “we will find an asymmetric answer”, pointing missiles at
Europe or declining to cut conventional forces near Europe. “Of course, we
are returning to that time” when Russian missiles were aimed directly at
Europe, he said. Nor did he offer hopes of gentler treatment for Russia’s
neighbours with whom he has picked recent fights.
“For 15 years we have been subsidising the former Soviet Republic with cheap
energy,” he said. “What is the logic?” He had no objections to eventual
European Union membership for Ukraine – where Russia cut off gas supplies in
January last year in a row about pricing – but he attacked the notion of
Ukraine joining Nato. He recalled an old joke about Erich Honecker, the last
East German leader – you could tell which phone on his desk had the direct
line to Moscow because it was the one with only an earpiece. “This is the
way that Nato functions,” he said, “except that the phone is connected to
Washington.”
He dismissed as “another piece of nonsense” suggestions that Russia should be
thrown out of the G8 for failing to improve democracy as it promised when it
was made a member in 1998. “Let us not be hypocritical on human rights and
democratic freedoms,” he said in a swipe at other countries, which is his
favourite rebuttal technique. “Let us look what is happening in North
America. It is horrible – torture, the homeless, Guantanamo, detention
without normal court proceedings.” In Europe, he said, “we can see violence
against demonstrators, the use of gas to disperse rallies”.
He has regularly acknowledged “certain miscalculations”, and the indisputable
point that corruption “is one of the sore spots troubling everything”. But
he baldly denied that he had curtailed the freedom of expression, despite
recent crackdowns on the media and demonstrations. “If people want to
express disagreement, they should have that right. But they should not
impede people going to work, normal urban life – then the Government must
take measures to restore order.” Given the rise of digital television and
the internet, he argued, “even if we wanted to control all of that, it would
be impossible”.
He thanked Tony Blair for a “cordial welcome” to Britain; in March 2000, in a
visit criticised at the time as prematurely friendly, the Prime Minister was
one of the first leaders to call on Mr Putin, when he was still
acting-president. But that does not, it seems, translate into concessions on
the Litvinenko case, and Mr Putin also said, in effect, that he had been
looking for a reason to revoke the exploration licence originally granted to
Shell.
“Did you see the initial agreement?” he asked. “It was a colonial agreement
that had nothing in the interests of the Russian Federation. A real zero.”
He added that “if our partners [Shell] had honoured their commitments then
we would have had no chance of remedying the situation but it was their
fault that they violated our environmental legislation.”
In the case of TNK-BP, the British energy company’s 50 per cent owned Russian
joint venture, which is waiting to hear the fate of a $20 billion (£10
billion) licence, he said: “They have not met their commitments. They knew
about the possible difficulties and they decided to buy the licence anyway.”
Calling Gordon Brown “a high-class specialist” – a compliment from one
technocrat to another – he said: “I hope that if he is the head of the
British Government, then all the positive achievements [in Russian-British
relations] will be recognised and extended.”
In Russia, unlike the Labour Party, he said, the next president would be
chosen “by the people”. He insisted that “my term is over”, repeating his
commitment to step down next March. He retains effective power, many
analysts believe, to tip the scales in favour of a chosen successor from the
current field of half a dozen contenders; he remarked, in one of the few
jokes of the evening, that Gordon Brown was not eligible.
Many have speculated that after one term out of the Kremlin, as obliged by the
Constitution, he might want to return. He said that after March “I know that
I will be working. But where, I cannot say”; many have surmised that he will
return to his power base in St Petersburg.
He added that, at 54, “I have not reached my retirement age and it would be
silly to sit at home without doing anything”. His wife is contemplating the
end of his presidency “without any regret”, as are his children, he said.
The presidency “is a burden on the family which does not give them the
compensations” of the office itself. “My wife is a philologist” – well
occupied studying languages and the humanities, he said. “I do not expect
any problems to appear there,” he added, with the air of a man used to
keeping an eye on every front.
Throughout the dinner, he had ignored the plates put in front of him:
carpaccio of sea bass with black caviar, crab gazpacho, turbot with
asparagus. His aides waited 20 minutes for him to start before nervously
lifting their own forks. He ignored the wine, taking only three sips of
water; Western officials say he never takes the “bathroom breaks” that
punctuate the world’s diplomatic marathons. Only when the final course of
“strawberry soup” arrived did he show awareness of the food’s existence,
dunking the ball of ice-cream in the liqueur for emphasis as he spoke, and
then ferrying the tiny wild strawberries to his mouth as if they were the
only sustenance he had been offered all evening.
As his aides told him delicately that it was approaching midnight, he joked to
the table: “Is it I who is torturing you?” The Japanese correspondent asked
why Russia had banned the export of crabs to his country and Mr Putin,
reluctant to relinquish the chance of a final, technical answer,
acknowledged “with deep regret” Russian smuggling but chided Japan for
fishing so intensively so that “in parts of the ocean, there is nothing
left”.
He concluded: “I love sushi myself so I have a stake in this.” That gesture
towards common tastes might win a smile in Japan, but it would not be a wise
line to try in London. Seven years after Mr Blair’s enthusiastic first
visit, murder by sushi is only one of the enduring causes of suspicion
between Britain and Mr Putin’s Russia.
woah people. you're over reacting. It'll all blow over. It's just a little posturing. Let's not berate each other with pithy little paragraphs of loathing. It just stokes the fire. America needs back off, and they will.
As for no one wanting to visit Russia, that's simply not true! Russians are great. As for me, a trip to Russia and ride on the trans-siberian railway is on of my life goals.
I love the James Bond comment btw, very astute.
Kif, London, UK
This is just Russia returning to 'normalcy' - the country has always seen itself as a great, autocratic sovereign power: there is even a quintessentially Russian term for that element of its identity - 'derzhavnost', roughly equivalent to 'powerful statehood'. The fact that it bowed its head to 'Western' values in the 1990s was simply a result of its weakness and vulnerability, and the very exceptional ideological vacuum left by the fall of the USSR; today, the situation has stabilised, and Russia has rediscovered this 'great power' element of its identity, helped by a dramatically changed balance of power (and payments!). What we are seeing is it reasserting itself on the world stage, trying to compensate for the perceived humiliations of the 1990s, trying to avoid it losing its 'near abroad' to the West as well, and attempting to safeguard the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent - so central to its military strategy.
Kevork Oskanian, London, UK
Cris: "Why do Russians support this man? Yet Putin's democratic backsliding, economic bullying, and war mongering (pointing missiles toward Europe?) is met only with loving applause"
maybe because democratic backsliding, economic bullying, and war mongering only in your Media and in you dreams but indead everything is not like it is depicted in your papers
Cris, you are right, if we like Putin there should be reasons. But do not try to find them reading Times, Guardian etc. and watching CNN and BBC
Spuntik, Vologda, Russia
putin is a kgb stooge, nothing more. he and bush alike are nothing more than pawns. they have been put out there as mouth pieces and bashing points for the populus, while those who really control things ( the global elite, the 5% who control the 95% of world wealth) are safe from scrutiny. pay attention people. bush iscurrently equippingaranch in paraguay with provisions for after he leaves office and there is a real threat of nuclear war on U.S. shores. these neocon tools are setting the stage for destruction on a global scale, and we're still just arguing back and forth. get a grip people.
d.basdyen, toledo, ohio
Can't anyone see the real picture? Russia is arming Iran with nuclear weapons technology and the missiles to deliver them. Iran will point them at Europe to blackmail the West. In effect, Russia's nuclear weapons will be pointed at Europe, via proxy. If Europeans are smart they will agree to the shield before it's too late and ignore Putin's blustering.
Steve C, Tampa, USA
I am afraid, that people, who only read a biased western press, are simply not in a position to understand and see the real problems of today's world. Try to remember, the Beslan and Nord-ost arguments of western press (terrorist were called a freedom fighters etc), and only then, you may understand why people in the west can’t have a proper judgment on Russia and Mr. Putin. So, try to analyze the facts, and only then you may judge Mr. Putin on his rule and his democracy/autocracy, but, as much as I would like not to say the following, I am afraid that the western press and people first of all have to deal with their autocratic governments, to get read of Guantanamo, Iraq, and, only then, you may be allowed to point fingers on other nations and their Presidents.
Milos, Moscow,
I can assure you that I believe Mr Putin long before I'd believe Bush, Blair and Co. Those are the "honest" leaders that told us Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and have slaughtered countless innocent people with their lie.
Putin is a real leader!
DS, Darwin, Australia
‘trappings of hospitality’. Sorry, do western journalists really want to be seated in a dim corridor instead of being offered warm tea and soft sofa so that nobody of you thought that we are trying to ‘bribe’ you?
‘I am alone. There are no such pure democrats in the world. Since Mahatma Gandhi, there has been no one’. Sorry, but Mr. Putin was joking (irony may be) about himself. Is not it obvious?
P.S. Alice, you are right 100%. Western journalists know details of those oil deals for sure. But they have orders not to reveal those details. They are ordered to smear Russia as much as possible. That is the problem.
Hope the people like Mark consists minority in western countries. Because if people like him consist majority who can we have negotiations with?
Russian Ivan, Moscow , Russia
I am reading the foreign press articles about Russia regularly with great interest. How many stupid things are reflected in many of them. Democracy/ Come to Russia and ask Russians what they think about all hot spots in the world. About their attitude towards escalation of tension between Russia and Europe which Americans are intending to destroy. Did Americans ask or consult Europe when declaring about anti-missile system in Czech Republic and Poland? What will happen with Russia should it be in European pants in terms of power supply? It would have been demolished. Who killed Litvinenko? Funny to listen to the accuses addressed to Kremlin. An ordinary former KGB, leitenant-colonel, had spent so much time in UK as a defector and suddenly the decision to murder him to Russian mind. Berezovsky - this is the answer, 85% of Russians are sure of it. The thief who had stolen billions of dollars during the mess times in Russia is OK with British authorities. Chechen terrorist is also welcome
Victor, Moscow, Russia
Putin is always given a James Bond gloss in the UK (possibly all English-speaking) media. He's a judo expert, has a genius-like ability to retain and recite figures and is so superhuman that he doesn't need to eat, chiding his aides for their pathetic weakness in pointing out that it's close to midnight. He doesn't drink any wine, has no need of bathroom breaks (they're for degenerate capitalists!) and his wife is a linguistic prodigy.
It's all very amusing and makes Putin sound like a character from a Cold War thriller. I'm sure Tony Blair would give anything to be portrayed in this kind of Hollywood blockbuster light.
MB, Edinburgh,
Why do Russians support this man? Even during a time of war (wars, actually), which is a consistent solidifier of support, Bush's policies are exceedingly unpopular in the States precisely because of events like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Yet Putin's democratic backsliding, economic bullying, and war mongering (pointing missiles toward Europe?) is met only with loving applause.
I understand that Russia has regained some geopolitical stature, and that the Russian economy is bustling. Is that it? Simple nationalism?
Chris, Boston, USA
I agree that there is a huge gap between rich and poor in Russia, corrupttion is growing vastly, the freedom of press is a joke (thanks to Mr. Putin's "sovereign democracy" policy), nationalism and ratial intolerance spoil the life of the minorities etc. I completely share the critical view of the Western press on this issues.
BUT!
The thing that I cannot understand and accept as a Russian, is that western media fail to differentiate between the Russian STATE and the Russian PEOPLE.
I will explain: while critisizing Putin, your press creates a terrible image of the country on the whole, everyone is afraid to go to Russia because of such a disastrous image YOUR MEDIA HAS CREATED! What most of the people who has never lived in Russia, but still are convinced they are the experts in all of the issues concerned with this country, are the wonderful talented people liveing there, it's beautiful nature and culture...
What was the last time you've read smth positive about Russia? 1990?
Alexander, Mannheim, Germany
He's like our Reagan in that he is restoring his country's honor and might. You Europeans have outgrown such things, but they matter greatly to us barbarians out here. To a point I wish Czar or Mahatma Putin and Russia good success; for everybody's sake I hope they have the wisdom not to step beyond that point.
cs, Detroit, USA
Putin's Russia is a threat to the development of democracy in the post soviet space. Skillfuly manipulating with energy resources as well as direct or indirect interferance into the domestic affaires of some states, coursed with their unfortunate geopolitical position Mr. Putin equates the revival of the Russian state to the restoration of Soviet era 'glory'. it seems that the Kremlin watchtower has been reprogramed to work anti-clock wise. Moscow feels as if we were at the begining of 80s. of thet last century and not in 2007.
George, London, UK
Why are we so anti-Russian at the moment? Is it because we realised we can't control the Middle East so are starting on Eastern Europe? You (the Times) wrote in length about the banning of the Pride march, without saying anything about the fact the Russian LGBT Rights groups don't support Pride marches because they say that it only makes things worse to provoke people. That's what we're doing, of course relations between us (the UK) and Russia won't get better because we don't seem to want it to get better. We can't make people hate the Middle East and support our actions there, but can make people hate Russia.
Putin is no worse than Sarcozy.
Ray, London, England
I think in recent weeks President Putin is increasingly displaying his lack of training as a politician. The one thing the neoconservatice hawks in the US administration really wanted was for the Russian Federation to give them a pretext for siting radar bases in Eastern Europe, and without batting an eyelid President Putin has given it to them on a plate.
Russia faces real threats: corruption is real, racism is increasing, inflation is looming on the horizon, and the "demographic time bomb" is potentially worse there than anywhere else. It does not need manufactured threats from "outside". One cannot but worry that President Putin's anointed successor will be chosen for his suitability to deal with the manufactured threats, not the real ones.
Biggleswade, Biggleswade, UK
We know we can't trust Putin or Russia under his control, but you must admit he has a point with the treaty we're ignoring, looking at weapons in space etc etc etc. Admitting that doesn't mean we have to like or trust him but we do need to recognise his position and that we are heading to a new arms race of our own making.
Gavin, London,
Hm.. May be I mistake but Unfortunately I think this particular article is a first tiny step to a model of yellow press
Andrey, Moskow, Russia
It would be so funny if it was not so deadly serious and sad. Putin is a bully, he believes in nuclear power but not for the generation of electricity but to threaten you with nuclear war. He believes in democracy, but not as you know it, as he is determined that each and every one of you will vote just for him. Do not accept hospitality from Putin unless you have a Geiger counter. Putin just makes you cynical and you wonder why you should bother saving and making plans for the future. Watch out there is a Putin about!
DJ, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Yeah he's right he is the only democrat left in Russia!
Thats because he has put the rest of them in prison!
Paul, London,
Marrk said: "Putin would be glad to do the work together with binLaden"
Mark,
Did you forget that Bin Laden was on American payroll, not Russian?
I think you are just being bitter because Putin is right, the West is not democratic. It hypocritically pretends to be.
AA, London,
Dear Bronwen, in your attempt to show the forest behind the trees, you got hopelessly consumed by petty details. If we start analysing out politicians in terms of where they live, what they eat, or what they wear, and attempt drawing conclusions from that, we end up both confused and traumatised by anything less the purely western (read English). Whatta shame women like you add to the gender battle by being so bitchy and 'girly' (or is that now too far fetched?).
Lina, Sydney, NSW
And what's eating you, Mark from Calgary? Russia never had any beef with Canada.
Michael, Dubai,
Mark, if you take propaganda articles like this that seriously, bless you, you make a great company to mr monkey boy (George Bush junior).
Lina, Sydney,
Superior, snooty, scathing, belittling - typical of the Western press.
Cultural note: Russians make eye contact, in contrast with Westerners who tend to prefer to be more politically correct (read: insincere).
Why should Putin not point out the human rights failures of other countries?
with regard to the revocation of the Shell/BP licences, why doesn't the press examine the original contracts and see how one sided they are? Put the shoe on the other foot and see how you might respond in the same situation.
Alice, Moscow,
Well, now that we know what an absolute and pure democrat looks like, we can all rest at ease, dismantle NATO, mothball our armies, and retire our copies of Plato, Aristotle and de Toqueville. What is more, it is absolutely clear now that we do not need America to be the world's policeman--Putin would be glad to do the work together with binLaden, and they've demonstrated their trustworthiness for the job. They are at least as beneficient as Ghandi. Welcome to the future, world.
Mark, Calgary, Canada
West is west and East is east and Russia simply will not change direction.
If France and USA can have differences we do not point nuclear missiles at each other to underscored them. Putin
does.
Scott Angell, Richmond, Virginia