How beloved is Russia's Dear Leader? One reporter gave President Vladimir Putin a pink, heart-shaped Valentine's card after his last presidential news conference.
They came from all of Russia’s eleven time zones, from every national newspaper and from all over the rest of the world to see him, and as usual, he didn’t disappoint. Vladimir Putin, giving his eighth and final annual press conference as Russian president spent more than 4 and a half hours answering some 100 questions from over 1,000 journalists. He spoke of the results of his time in office, of the future under Dmitry Medvedev, of foreign policy, of Russian regional politics, and of his personal ambitions and motivations. And, as usual, there was time for a bit of light flirting and a few caustic remarks directed against the West. ...
The first question, from Komsomolskaya Pravda, probed him on his greatest achievement and greatest failure. Putin said he didn’t see any significant failures during his eight years in power. He kept quiet about Beslan, about Nord-Ost, and about Kursk – either he feels they were not significant failures of the state, or he simply didn’t want to remind Russians about them just before a presidential election. ...
I found this part surreal ...
Many of the regional reporters had come with brightly painted signs advertising their regions, and waved them enthusiastically in the hope that Putin would pick them to ask a question. Some even opted for more ambiguous signs, in hope of tempting Putin’s curiosity, or his press secretary Alexei Gromov – an Olympic symbol, a heart, or a red question mark. Towards the end, journalists even began shrieking out the name of their regions and jumping to get attention, with Putin clearly enjoying the spectacle. It was difficult not to feel sorry for a silver-haired gentleman who politely and patiently waved a small Azerbaijani flag and a placard stating “Baku” for the entire duration of the press conference, yet was never selected to ask his question. On the balcony, two women exchanged bitter words when one of them snatched the microphone from the other and usurped the questioner.
A Chechen reporter from Grozny said that “the Chechen people associate with you all the positive things that are happening in our republic” and begged the president to visit Chechnya in person. Putin promised that he would do so. When a French reporter later questioned the 99 percent turnout and 99 percent of votes garnered by the United Russia party in last December’s parliamentary elections in Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia, Putin brought in local reporters to the discussion and asked them if they believed the results were accurate. In Ingushetia, which has experienced protests and clashes between protesters and riot police in recent months, a campaign entitled “I didn’t vote” was organised. The organisers say that more than half the republic’s population signed a petition saying they had not voted, despite the official turnout of 99 percent. Putin said he believed they were accurate and reporters from the two regions agreed. “All ten members of my family and I voted for United Russia,” said an Ingush journalist.
Putin, who used the conference as an opportunity to “say hello to all blondes” two years ago, also had time for some light flirting. A pretty, bespectacled girl from Radio Shanson asked Putin if he’d received any Valentine’s cards. Sadly, the president hadn’t, but luckily the reporter herself had a pink, heart-shaped card prepared, which she handed to Putin at the end of the conference. On another occasion, when a woman began a demography question with the words: “I would like to have a baby,” Putin interjected, saying, “Why are you asking me about it?” Still, his long-standing reticence to discuss family life was on show, when he was asked what his wife Ludmilla thought when he told her he wanted to be prime minister. After all, the questioner said, she had admitted to crying when Putin became president because he would have much less time for his family. “She didn’t like it,” he said curtly, with a small snarl, before immediately moving on to the next question.
Here are some of the bon mots alluded to in the lede ...
He suggested that the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which has been critical of how Russia's elections have been conducted - BD), instead of trying to teach Russia how to behave, should “teach their own wife how to make cabbage soup.” In response to a question about Hilary Clinton’s remarks that Putin, as an ex-KGB agent, had no soul, he snapped that a government official “should at least have brains.” And he called allegations in the Western press that he had secretly become the wealthiest man in Europe during his time in office “nonsense” that Western newspapers had “picked out of their noses and smeared on the paper.” He later said that the Western press should worry about its own problems, such as fighting obesity, instead of criticising Russia.
So long, Vlad. While we'll miss you, it's good to know you won't be going far (he's gong to be "prime minister").
Addendum
Here's an excerpt from the NYT story, which buttresses some of the above:
“Let them teach their wives to make shchi,” he said (about the OSCE). Shchi is a popular Russian cabbage soup.
Similarly, Mr. Putin swept aside a remark by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said that as a former K.G.B. officer, Mr. Putin “has no soul.”
“As a minimum, a state official must at least have a head,” he said.
Mr. Putin also flashed his annoyance when asked about reports in Western newspapers that he had used his office to accumulate a vast personal fortune. Such “rumors,” he said, “they picked from a nose and smeared onto their papers.”
The conference alternated between these occasionally scalding moments and others in which Mr. Putin, answering questions from admiring Russian journalists, was at ease and treated with public fealty.
One young woman noted that the conference was held on Valentine’s Day, and asked whether Mr. Putin had received a gift.
He said he had been busy doing his morning exercises and preparing for the conference, and had not yet received any presents. The reporter then grinned and said she would like to give him a Valentine, and he invited her to pass it down to him through the crowd.
At another point, a French journalist asked Mr. Putin if he thought that the official results recorded in Chechnya during parliamentary elections in December were realistic. According to the Central Election Commission, the voter turnout in Chechnya was 99 percent, and 99 percent of the voters cast their ballots for United Russia, the party Mr. Putin leads.
Chechnya sought to break from Russia in the early 1990s, and waged a long insurgency for which it has been intensely punished. Past elections there have been openly rigged, and the latest results were viewed in the West and among Mr. Putin’s domestic critics as unashamedly fake.
Mr. Putin, looking confident, asked a state journalist from Chechnya to answer the question. “These are absolutely realistic figures,” the journalist said. “Personally, all my acquaintances, including myself, voted for United Russia.”