He hates the foreign media, bridles at the least provocation and rounds on his opponents like a terrier. But a three-hour lunch with Vladimir Putin at his favourite resort of Sochi reveals that the Russian Prime Minister has a sense of humour, can be charming and can turn his anger on and off at will.

In his longest session with Western visitors since last month’s war in Georgia, he held forth on every subject concerning Russia, from the threat of a new cold war to the price of gas, the crisis in the global economy and even the fate of the missing North Korean leader.

When asked about the health of Kim Jong Il, Mr Putin affected a look of surprise and answered in a deadpan voice: “He is in a mausoleum.” He was referring to Mr Kim’s late father and provoked a roar of laughter from his guests.

Mr Putin is short and wiry, with piercing blue eyes and the physique of somebody who works out and watches his weight. Unlike Boris Yeltsin, who was known for his heavy drinking bouts, Mr Putin ate three red grapes and drank a cup of tea during a marathon question-and-answer session that would have impressed a KGB interrogator.

The overwhelming impression is of a man who knows how to rule his giant and often chaotic country and, after a decade in power, feels comfortable at the top table of international politics – even during a big crisis.

His generation of world leaders, men such as Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and George Bush, may either have left the world stage already, or be about to, but Mr Putin made it clear that while officially Russia’s No 2 he remainedfirmly at the helm.

When asked who was in charge, President Medvedev or him, Mr Putin made a forcefully argued case for his successor. But when he told his audience that he would be telling the President what to say when the same question was put to him, his aides simply sniggered conspiratorially at Russia’s worst-kept secret.

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