#1
Rossiya 1 TV
April 26, 2015
TV marks 15 years of Putin's leadership with dedicated documentary - transcript
Video here http://russia.tv/video/show/brand_id/59329/episode_id/1193264/video_id/1165983/viewtype/picture
To mark the 15th anniversary since Vladimir Putin was first elected Russian president, official state television channel Rossiya 1 on April 26 aired a 150-minute documentary called "President". The core of the film was an interview with Putin conducted by journalist Vladimir Solovyev.
[Vladimir Solovyev, present-day interview with Putin] Can you think of your life outside the presidency?
[Putin] Incidentally, this is not a trivial question. In fact, this is a litmus test of sorts, I think. If a person can go back to live in an ordinary flat instead of operating in palace interiors, then this person has not lost touch with the outside world. I can easily imagine a life outside this post.
Initial appointment; defeating militants in North Caucasus
[Archive footage of the militant incursion into Dagestan on 7 Aug 99]
[Sergey Stepashin, captioned as Russian prime minister in May-August 1999, addressing a government session on 9 Aug 99] I shan't be sitting down, so that I do not overstay my welcome here, right, Nikolay Valeryanovich? The situation in Dagestan and in the Caucasus is very difficult. I have just come back from there. [Name indistinct, he is addressing one of the ministers] Very difficult. We may lose Dagestan. Coordination remains poor. For some reason, everybody is asking for political will. That is why I had to fly there yesterday and say that I assume this responsibility. And now, to current issues. In the morning I had a meeting with the president. He signed a decree on my resignation. He thanked me for good work and relieved me of my post. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, secretary of the Security Council, FSB director, has been appointed acting prime minister. I believe him to be a decent and worthy man. I would like to wish him good luck, specifically good luck because he has the rest.
[Passage omitted: a clip from a foreign media report on Putin's appointment, dated 9 Aug 99; this and subsequent foreign media reports cited in the documentary are attributed to "ITN Source"]
[Aleksandr Zhukov, captioned as a State Duma deputy in 1999-2004] People had a total mistrust in the authorities. A war in the Caucasus under way.
[Georgiy Poltavchenko, captioned as plenipotentiary presidential envoy to Leningrad Region in 1999-2000] The war was not only in the Caucasus, it was in the whole country. You must remember that series of terrorist attacks and so on. It all was not a long time ago, a mere 14-15 years ago.
[Passage omitted: a clip from another foreign media report dated 14 Aug 99, saying Putin had promised to establish control over Dagestan in two weeks' time.]
[Putin, in the interview to Solovyev] At that time, I could not take [all] decisions. But I had to do things for real, although I did not have the full spectrum of powers. It was clear how great that responsibility was. Of course, that went without saying. I had only one question - I don't want to voice it now, in front of the camera - if it turns out to be impossible to see things through, what is to be done then, how to live further? I decided for myself that I had no other choice. I had to go all the way, to the end.
[Zakhar Prilepin, captioned as an OMON unit commander, a participant in the counterterrorist operation in Chechnya in 1999] I was not aware of the name Putin back then. It was August-September 1999. The experience of the previous Chechen campaign was rather hard. It was a string of failures and often simply betrayals. In 1999, when Chaban-Makhi, Karan-Makhi happened, what Khattab was advancing on Dagestan, I heard the name of our president for the first time. Our platoon commander Vladimir Ivanov said: There is a new one now; he walked into a tent where the generals were gathered and they toasted to victory.
[Archive footage of Putin addressing a gathering in a military tent] I would very much like, according to the Russian tradition and the traditions of the sacred land of Dagestan, where we are gathered today, to raise this glass and drink to the memory of those who were killed [some people at the table began to rise from their seats] Hold on a second. I would very much like to drink to the health of those wounded and to wish happiness to all the people present here. But we have many problems and big tasks ahead of us, as you know full well. You know what the enemy is planning. We know it too, what acts of provocation are expected in the near future, in which districts and so on. We do not have the right to a second of weakness, not a second. Because if we allow it, those who were killed would have been killed for nothing. That is why I suggest we put down these glasses. We shall drink to them, by all means. But we shall drink later, later, when the tasks which are a matter of principle and which you are all aware of have been resolved. That is why I suggest we now have a quick snack and get down to work.
[Prilepin] He put the glass down on the table and I remember my platoon commander speaking of it with surprise and with respect. He said: Maybe now things will go differently. Because in his tough man's understanding, there was some right meaning in that glass which was put back on the table. When several days later warplanes began flying above Khattab's units and hitting them on Chechen territory, it became clear that that glass which was put back on the table had a very specific meaning. It meant that everything will be in earnest now.
[Passage omitted: archive footage from 24 Sep 99, when Putin promised to "follow terrorists everywhere". "If we catch them in a toilet, then we will soak them in the loo," he said]
[Madeleine Albright, captioned as US Secretary of State in 1997-2001, speaking in English, with Russian translation superimposed; archive footage] What is going on in Chechnya as a result of Russia's actions, was caused by the fact that Russia does not want to resolve the issue politically, by talking to the Chechen leaders.
[Shamil Basayev, captioned as a terrorist; archive footage] There are two categories of Russian soldiers on Chechen territory: those who are already in coffins and those who will be in coffins.
[Putin, in the interview to Solovyev] There was no option other than suppressing that terrorism. It was impossible to negotiate a deal. I remember very well - I think I have mentioned it already - while serving as FSB director, I read various operative documents, including intercepts of communications between international terrorists, when they were writing to each other: Now is a unique moment in history, we have an opportunity to tear the Caucasus away from Russia; it's now or never [end of quote]. To us it was clear too: either we retain it [the North Caucasus] now or we shall never again have the chance to preserve the country intact. At the time, practically everyone - perhaps with the exception of Russians because ordinary people did not quite go into much detail, perhaps did not quite realize what was happening - but elsewhere in the world, many of my colleagues, presidents, prime ministers, told me later that everybody then had decided that Russia was ceasing to exist in its present form. The only question was when it would happen and what the consequences of it will be, given that it was a major nuclear power.
[Sergey Ivanov, captioned as secretary of the Russian Security Council in 1999-2001] On 31 December 1999, at 10 in the morning, I received a call from Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin's office telling me to be there in 30 minutes' time. I was invited in his office. We were standing there, witnessing the handover of power, which incidentally included the handover of the nuclear briefcase.
[Sergey Shoygu, captioned as Russian emergencies minister in 1994-2012] I remember that day very well. On 31 December, we were invited to a breakfast with the president. There were about eight of us, I think. I saw people carrying in a TV set. If you remember, back then TV sets were rather bulky. They brought it in and put it down. In walked Boris Nikolayevich and Vladimir Vladimirovich. They sat down and switched on the TV.
[Passage omitted: a clip from President Yeltsin's 31 Dec 99 New Year address to the nation, when he announced that he was resigning]
[Shoygu] From there we learnt that Boris Nikolayevich had quit and handed over presidential powers to Vladimir Vladimirovich. After that Vladimir Vladimirovich invited me to his Kremlin office and said it would be a good idea to congratulate our troops.
[Nikolay Patrushev, captioned as FSB director in 1999-2008] The morale of the armed forces was rather low. It was necessary to boost servicemen's morale so that they began to believe in themselves. At the same time, of course, it was necessary to ensure security during that event because we were flying in an area where fighting was under way.
[Shoygu] Of course, it was nerve-racking: the president of the country as flying in a helicopter, the weather conditions were poor.
[Patrushev] Our helicopter came under fire and we had to return to Makhachkala. We then prepared vehicles that took us to Gudermes.
[Ramzan Kadyrov, captioned as head of the Chechen republic] I was in Gudermes. My father knew that he [Putin] was coming. I don't know how he knew, it was a secret. Nobody believed, even I did not believe it: there was fighting everywhere, and Putin would arrive in civilian vehicles from Dagestan.
[Patrushev] We arrived in Gudermes at about half past four and we saw the New Year in together with servicemen there.
[Putin addressing troops in Gudermes on 31 Dec 99] Guys, we wish you a happy New Year. We wish you happiness, all the best in the new year, good health, and happiness at home. I want you to know that Russia values highly what you are doing, and what you are doing is very necessary for the country, very necessary. We are not talking simply about restoring the honour and dignity of the country. No, we are talking about far more serious matters. We are talking about putting an end to the disintegration of Russia. That is your main task.
[Dmitriy Peskov, captioned as presidential press secretary] Setting a task, as far as Putin is concerned, has always implied a specific result in due course. When Putin said that the problem had to be resolved in a matter of two weeks, it was resolved in two weeks' time. Painstaking work was being carried out with the local population. As a result, a huge number of local residents in Dagestan, with arms in their hands, joined in with the federal forces and fought against those terrorists, and in the end defeated those terrorists. The same happened in Chechnya.
[Putin, addressing a public gathering in the village of Znamenskoye in Chechnya, on 20 Oct 99] We should act with great care. We should act in such a way so as not to do damage to civilians. Apart from armed bandits, there are also women and children there, and elders and elderly people, aren't there? Incidentally, there are Great Patriotic War veterans there too, to whom we owe a great deal for the victory over fascism. They took part in it. We treat them as our own.
[Peskov] Akhmad-khadzhi Kadyrov believed Putin, believed in that work. He followed him [Putin] and hundreds and thousands of other Chechens followed suit.
[Prilepin] There was surprise, there was a feeling that a different person has come to the scene.
Putin's roots
[Poltavchenko, this time captioned as St Petersburg governor] I had met both his parents. What does it [the Leningrad siege] signify? For Vladimir Vladimirovich, as it is for me, it is not just a heroic feat of the people, it is also a personal tragedy that will never die. His older brother is buried in one of the mass graves in Piskarev Cemetery, he died as a baby. His father was badly wounded at the Nevskiy Bridgehead, it was a miracle that he survived. When he returned home from hospital, the mother of our future president was being carried out of the flat by male nurses who had taken her for dead. With his crutches, he waved them away; and he nursed her back to life.
[Patrushev, this time captioned as secretary of the Russian Security Council] When he moved to Moscow to work in 1998, his parents were already old and had to be looked after. He visited them at every opportunity, to talk to them, to help them any way he could.
[Nursultan Nazarbayev, captioned as president of Kazakhstan] We've had occasion to talk on various topics. When we meet informally, we would recall our mothers when we were children. I told him: why is it that while our mothers are alive, we do not value it, we do not find time to be with them, to talk to them, to listen to then, to hug them. He too began to reminisce, and I saw how moved he was.
[Passage omitted: a clip from a foreign media report dated 25 Mar 00 about life in St Petersburg at the time, featuring a local pensioner who says that "Putin is better" and she would vote for him in the upcoming election]
[Putin, speaking on 26 Mar 00, after winning the presidential election] Even in my worst nightmare I could not see myself taking part in an election. It was because it seems to me that this is an absolutely shameless affair - you shouldn't be laughing - since something must always be promised. Moreover, you should promise to do more that you rivals do. The way the election campaign went and the way I managed to arrange it, relieved me of the need to mislead huge masses of people. And now I am happy about this.
[Putin's voice behind camera] That is why tomorrow will be a normal working day. Tomorrow at 10 in the morning I shall have a meeting with deputy prime ministers.
[Dmitriy Kozak, captioned as head of the government staff, minister in 1999-2000] He called me and asked me to come to work. I told him frankly that I would not cope, that I was afraid. [Putin told him:] Are you afraid so much that your will be paralysed and won't be able to do anything? Well, I am afraid too. It is a huge responsibility. I am afraid I won't cope. But somebody must resolve all these things, somebody must take them on. Since we have been given this opportunity, let's try and do it, let's raise this country.
Broken economy, "oligarchic kolkhoz"
[German Gref, captioned as Russian first deputy minister of state property in 1998-2000] I think the main question we began asking ourselves was: what are we going to do afterwards? That was probably the second serious question without an answer. Nobody fully realized what needed to be done.
[Putin speaking after his inauguration on 7 May 00] Very often from people, from the most ordinary people, in the squares and streets of our towns I have heard very simple words, but words that are very important to me. I was told: We believe you; we are counting on you; don't deceive us [end of quote]. I can assure you that in my work I will be guided only by the interests of the state. There may well be mistakes. But I what I can promise, and indeed I do promise you, that I will work openly and honestly.
[Gref, this time captioned as Russian economic development and trade minister in 2000-2007] We then made the first attempt to analyse the situation in the economy, in the financial and social spheres, in the judicial and law-enforcement sphere. I remember, we occasionally gathered in the evening and somebody once said: It seems we have Chechnya everywhere. What was meant was not geographic Chechnya but Chechnya in essence, in all spheres of life.
[Vladimir Potanin, captioned as president of the Interros holding company] The weakness of the state and the weakness of the authorities in the 1990s bred the fear that the new authorities too would not be able to handle the situation and too would be subjected to influence, including from oligarchs.
[Solovyev, in the present-day interview with Putin] When you came to power as president, Russia was being run by a powerful oligarchic kolkhoz.
[Putin] Indeed.
[Solovyev] They were looking at you and thinking: We'll eat him.
[Putin] Yes.
[Solovyev] We'll strike a deal.
[Putin] Yes.
[Solovyev] So all those wolves who throughout the 1990s had defined the face of power and of what was happening in the country had not only to be reigned in but had to be torn away, prevented from further doing whatever they wanted.
[Putin] Some of them - when I was chairman of the government and when Yeltsin already announced that I would be running for president - some of them came to my office at the White House [Russian government headquarters], sat across from me and told me: You do understand, don't you, that you will never be the president here? I told them: Well, we'll see. I had scenes like that, at the White House.
[Solovyev] So how did you manage to reign them in?
[Putin] Through different means.
[Potanin] I remember very well that meeting in the summer of 2000. That was in effect President Putin's first meeting with representatives of business circles, in a broad format. It was very important for us to hear what sort of state Putin was building, while it was important for Putin to explain to us what behaviour he expects from us as from businessmen. He told us straightaway: Look, guys, this won't do, you will not be able to reject the legacy [presumably, meaning all the wrong things they had done, according to Putin].
[Putin, speaking at that meeting on 28 Jul 00] I only want to draw your attention straight away to the fact that you have yourselves formed this very state, to a large extent through political and quasi-political structures under your control. So what you should do least of all is blame the mirror.
[Potanin] Putin did not show any aggression. He was very calm: A different system will now be built and you should make your contribution to this system. What will it consist in? In that your business should be transparent, you should pay taxes, you should not exploit your workers and you should pay them decent wages. In other words, you will have to prove your right to existence and your right to respect, taking into consideration the things that you have already got wrong..
[Zhukov] At the time, most of the economy was in the grey, if not black, zone. Wages were paid in envelopes, taxes were not paid. There was criminal lawlessness. The average pension in 2000 - many have forgotten this already - was slightly over R800. And even that pension was not paid for six months on end. People were not paid wages for up to six months.
[Sergey Ivanov] A large section, if not the majority, of the country's population were just struggling to survive.
[Aleksey Miller, captioned as Russian deputy energy minister in 2000-2001] By the early 2000s, many strategically important enterprises had been taken out of state control.
[Aleksey Kudrin, captioned as Russian finance minister in 2000-2011] There was unemployment, a lot of people were employed in the shadow economy. That was happening in 2000 or thereabouts.
[Prilepin, this time captioned as a writer] The country that he took into his hands was like an ice floe, not yet fully cut into pieces, not even a ship, that was slowly sinking into oblivion.
Loss of Kursk submarine
[Andrey Kolesnikov, captioned as a journalist; over video of a gathering of relatives of Kursk crew members in the settlement of Vidyayevo in Murmansk Region] We were sitting and waiting for Putin in the hall. I was sitting in the second row, together with the sailors' wives. To be honest, I thought they would simply tear him to pieces. One of them was saying: How can he come here? Doesn't he understand what we shall do to him now? They were waiting for the Kursk submarine to be raised, to be rescued and yet they realized that it was probably hopeless. There was such a vibe there, such a lump of hatred, and despair, and pain that I don't think I had ever experienced before. All the questions were focused on that one person [Putin].
[Putin, speaking on 22 Aug 00, in Vidyayevo] The thing is that - what was difficult to imagine, for me too, I can tell you frankly - is that we all know that our country is in a difficult situation, that our armed forces are in a difficult situation, that our navy is if not in a [word indistinct] then at least in a very difficult situation, but I did not imagine that everything was quite in such a state. All the hardware has fallen into pieces. There is nothing left.
[Kolesnikov] One woman near me fainted, some five minutes into the meeting. She was crying out something. At first, they kept interrupting him. Of course, they were more in need of being heard than of listening to what he had to say. At one point, he just went silent and was just listening to what they were telling him. But then he started to reply to them.
[Putin, on 22 Aug 00] If I could, you know, If I could, I would have gone there myself. As you know, I had been there. Neither our not foreign experts can reach the eighth compartment. In order to raise the submarine. I am telling you this responsibly - I could have come here, promised you the world and disappeared - but I am telling you as things are. This is the hard truth but it is the truth as it is.
[Kolesnikov] And at one point I realized that all of them, together with him, had crossed that line that separated their husbands' lives from their deaths. Together with him, they crossed that line and moved on.
"Pulling the country together"
[Sergey Ivanov, this time captioned as secretary of the Russian Security Council in 2000-2001] Back then we set plans that I could sum up as pulling the country together [Rus: styagivaniye strany]. Because at that moment, without mincing words, the country was crumbling like some porridge.
[Poltavchenko, this time captioned as plenipotentiary presidential envoy to the Central Federal District in 2000-2011] It was fashionable to take a somewhat contemptuous view of the federal centre and of the federal authorities.
[Vladimir Litvinenko, captioned as vice-chancellor of the St Petersburg-based National Mineral Resources University] Back then, any governor could afford to refuse the president's summons. The head of the Republic of Sakha [Yakutia] declared: let's lease out all of our natural wealth to Japan, let them pay each Yakut thousands of dollars and all will be well.
[Kozak, this time captioned as deputy head of the presidential administration in 2000-2003] When each region was its own manager, its own legislator, its own controller over how its laws were being implemented, that signified a loss of signs of the country as a sovereign state.
[Mintimer Shaymiyev, captioned as president of Tatarstan in 1991-2010] One could not say that our republic at that time was fully and wholly within the legal field of the Russian Federation. Vladimir Vladimirovich calmly told me: Mintimer Sharipovich, Tatarstan must be fully and wholly within the legal field of the Russian Federation. I replied: It would be fair to adopt a special programme for the social and economic development of Tatarstan once it is fully within the legal field of the Russian Federation. He said: This is the right way of looking at it [end of quote]. I must say, it was done in a matter of several months.
[Shoygu] During the first winter of the president's first term, in the Far East at first 250,000, then 300,000; then 400,000 people, whole towns and population centres were left without electricity; hospitals were not working as there was no heating.
[Peskov] There was a complete breakdown. The vertical of power was not yet fully restored, to put it mildly, to the level that Putin needed it. Everything was working very badly.
[Shoygu] Miners were in the streets, there was no work for them, mines were not working. At the same time, there were huge batches of coal sitting in central Siberia that had already been sold and were waiting for shipment to buyers outside Russia. Then the president ruled to stop it all, to send the coal to heating plants inside the country.
[Peskov] Putin could not but resolve that problem through manual management. Radiators, cast-iron radiators, were brought in by aircraft. That is, of course, absurd from the point of view of efficiency and costs. But it was absolutely justified from the point of view of preventing people from freezing.
[Shoygu] Twenty-four heads of municipal and district administrations were sacked. On an instruction from the president, they were raised from their warm beds at night and were told to write letters of resignation standing on the stair landings outside their flats. Criminal cases were launched. One way or another, those who remained in their posts began to wake up. It was a big and serious example and the authorities, the president showed that there was power in the country, and a strong power at that.
Relations with USA: "We all had our illusions"
[Passage omitted: a clip from US President George Bush Jr's inauguration on 20 Jan 01]
[Peskov] When George Bush came to power, he began to make a big focus on human rights issues. His favourite passages were about democracy, Chechnya, freedom of the media - a standard set of criticisms. This turned into a nearly six-months-long ping-pong of harsh statements. Washington was raising the temperature, Moscow was raising the temperature too.
[Passage omitted: a clip from a 2001 Russian TV report about the first meeting Putin and Bush Jr had on 16 Jun 01 in Ljubljana and the two leaders' statements at the joint news conference about whether they trust each other]
[Igor Ivanov, Russian foreign minister at the time] The fact that this phrase [by Bush that Putin was "a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country"] was not prepared in advance but rather was a sincere and improvised reaction to the first impressions of his conversation with the Russian president is confirmed by the fact that they had 18 meetings over a period of seven years.
[Sergey Ivanov, this time captioned as Russian defence minister in 2001-2007] He and Putin had a wonderful personal relationship, wonderful. They joked a lot, they laughed a lot. However, at that time the USA already became convinced that Russia had turned into a colonial democracy, that we had become firmly addicted to International Monetary Fund aid, that the expert community should continue to teach us further as to how we should develop our economy, where we should be supplying our oil, etc. On the outside, everything looked very proper. We were patted on the shoulder, we were reassured: Guys, you are moving in the right direction.
[Putin, in the interview to Solovyev] We all had our illusions. We thought back then that after the Soviet Union collapsed and after Russia voluntarily, I want to stress this, voluntarily and consciously accepted absolutely historic restrictions as it relinquished some of its own territory, industrial capacity and so on, we thought that with the end of the ideological component that separated the former Soviet Union and the entire civilized world, that all the barriers were down and liberty would greet us joyously at the entrance and our brothers would hand us the sword [quote from a Pushkin poem]. However, those brothers, meaning brothers abroad, were in no hurry to hand us any sword and in fact would have happily taken away what was left of the former Soviet Union's military might.
[Solovyev] One gets the sense of a very big disappointment in your words. The feeling of trust is gone.
[Putin] Indeed. As I have said earlier, I had spent nearly 20 years working in the KGB, in foreign intelligence and yet even I thought that with the end of the ideological barrier in the form of the Communist Party's monopoly on power, that things would change radically. But no. They didn't change radically because as it turns out - these simple things do not occur immediately - but nevertheless there are also geopolitical interests that are not linked to any ideology at all. And here our Western partners should have realized too that a country like Russia has and cannot fail to have its geopolitical interests, and - treating each other with respect - should have sought a balance and mutually-acceptable solutions.
[Solovyev] However, respect is based on the strength and fairness of one's position.
[Putin] Absolutely. A well-known public figure once said: You can get much farther with a kind word and a Smith & Wesson than you can with a kind word alone. Unfortunately, he was right.
[Solovyev] You had the kind word but you did not have the Smith & Wesson. Largely speaking, you had to restore the armed forces, to revive the economy and save the military-industrial complex.
[Putin] Yes, that is true. But we had to start with the economy.
[Kudrin] There were many debts. I remember the most difficult moment was in January 2001. We gathered at the start of the month and discussed whether we could continue to service the external debt, whether we were up to it. The debt amounted to 140 per cent of GDP. That was the worst case possible, as interest payments to service that debt ate up a third of the budget. That was the situation, the country's debt that Putin inherited.
[Gref] When the picture became more or less clear: we seemed to be moving into a completely new phase but, first, there were no new mechanisms and, second, unfortunately, there were not even enough people who could realize what could be proposed in that situation. Putin had very good relations with the chairman of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn. We agreed with Wolfensohn that he would bring a number of internationally renowned experts with him to Moscow. We had meetings with those outstanding international experts and Vladimir Vladimirovich sometimes spent three-four hours talking to them.
[Kudrin] He asked many questions. He liked to be told of other countries' experience, of the opportunities open to us.
[Gref] For the first four years we did not have a majority in the Duma and we had to do a lot of work with the Duma factions to have this or that decision passed. We were carrying out reforms with huge support from Putin. It was enough for us that we knew that we had him behind our backs and we knew that in a critical moment he would support us. A 10-year programme for the country's development was adopted. Looking at the facts, before Putin came to power, nothing similar had ever been done in Russia, including in modern Russia, nothing with a 10-year look-ahead.
9/11, Iraq
[Passage omitted: clips from foreign media reporting on the 9/11 attacks]
[Sergey Ivanov] I remember the day 11 September 2001 as if it were yesterday. An aide ran into my office telling me to switch the TV. I switched it on, I switched on CNN, I saw that terrible footage.
[Igor Ivanov, captioned as Russian foreign minister in 1998-2004] President Putin was the first to call President Bush. That call was a natural reaction from a president who understood very well what international terrorism was.
[Putin, in a televised address aired on 11 Sep 01] Russia knows first-hand what terrorism is like. Therefore, we really do understand the feelings of the US people. Addressing the people of the United States on behalf of Russia, I would like to say that we are with you.
[Sergey Ivanov] I called the president, he asked me: What are your immediate suggestions? I said: I have one suggestion; we had a drill of our strategic nuclear missile forces planned for 12 September. He asked me: What do you suggest? I said: It is your decision but I think we should cancel this drill. He said: All right, I support your suggestion. Indeed, let's not agitate the Americans. Why agitate them in a moment like this? [end of quote] And all that despite the fact that at that moment hostilities were under way in Chechnya, while the terrorists who were fighting there, including those coming from different countries of the world, were described by the Americans as freedom fighters, or at least as rebels.
[Putin, in the interview to Solovyev] Once our special services detected direct contacts between militants from the North Caucasus and representatives from a US special service in Azerbaijan. They were actually simply helping, even with transport. When I told this to the incumbent president of the United States, he replied: Well, I - forgive me but I'll be blunt - I'll kick their ass [end of quote]. In 10 days' time, however, our people, my subordinates, the FSB leadership, got a letter from their counterparts in Washington: We have maintained and will continue to maintain relations with all the opposition forces in Russia, and we think that we have the right to do it and we will continue to do it in the future.
Under no circumstances, never and nowhere one must even try to use terrorists in order to solve one's short-term political or even geopolitical objectives. Because if they are supported in one place, they will rear their heads in another, and will be bound to attack those who supported them yesterday.
[Solovyev] You did warn your Western partners, didn't you? You asked them: Why do you support terrorists? It will backfire.
[Putin] Yes, sure. But someone thought there, apparently, especially the Western intelligence agencies, that if someone acts to destabilize the main geopolitical rival - and this is how, as we now understand, Russia has always remained in their minds - it is generally in their interests. It has turned out that it is not so.
[Passage omitted: an excerpt from Putin's speech in the German parliament on 25 Sep 01 on the need to build trust]
[Igor Ivanov] After 11 September 2001, the USA began to justify many of its actions on the international arena by the fight against terrorism, against international terrorism. It was particularly evident with Iraq.
[Passage omitted: a clip from a foreign media report on Putin's meeting with the then UK prime minister, Tony Blair, and their joint news conference]
[Igor Ivanov] Everybody realized that it was an extremely significant moment, both for Iraq, and for the region, and for the whole international system as a whole.
[Passage omitted: an except from a foreign media report on Colin Powell's speech at the UNSC claiming presence of WMD in Iraq]
[Putin, in an interview for the French TF1 channel on 11 Feb 03] We received information from our American colleagues about the link between the Iraqi authorities and Al-Qa'idah only recently, in the United Nations Security Council, when our American friends made a statement to this effect. I became a politician not so long ago. Before this, as you know, I was working in special agencies, intelligence agencies. I thought that I knew everything inside out. But when I started in politics, I understood that I, my Russian colleagues and my French colleagues and other colleagues who work for special agencies are children compared to politicians.
[Passage omitted: an excerpt from a Russian TV report saying the positions of Russia, France and Germany on Iraq coincide in that the issue can be resolved only through diplomatic means]
[Igor Ivanov] In the end, despite active resistance of the international community, the USA still decided to go ahead with that military operation.
[Yevgeniy Primakov, captioned as academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences] I was summoned by President Putin. Bombings were already under way. At the time, we had some 3,500 Russian specialists working there, who were not allowed to be evacuated. When I protested to Saddam Husayn, naturally citing an instruction from my president, Saddam agreed to that. A schedule was drawn up under which our specialists were evacuated and not one of them was hurt.
[Igor Ivanov] The meetings that took place between President Putin, President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder, which had become a regular occurrence, discussed global issues because it was absolutely obvious that the configuration of the world was changing. Europe, in order to have its voice and its opinion in that large world, would have won a lot had it been a united, big Europe. That is why those plans for a big Europe, from Vladivostok to Lisbon, were a mechanism for serious interaction meeting the requirements of the 21st century. Unfortunately, after the departure of President Chirac and then of Chancellor Schroeder, this mechanism was never developed. I for one think it was very promising.
Putin's stamina, lateness, worst moments
[Sergey Ivanov, chuckling] I haven't met people with such stamina. He goes to sleep very late. Often, I know that he went to sleep very late and then he calls me in the morning and I wonder: when does he sleep?
[Peskov] He has the ability to concentrate first on one topic and then, after a brief period of time, equally concentrate on another topic.
[Gref] One of his qualities that he has still is his ability to listen. He listens to everyone, he gives everyone the chance to speak, sometimes even more than necessary. Sometimes, his meetings last hours and hours, which upsets the whole schedule.
[Andrey Kolesnikov] There is often talk of his lateness. This problem does exist and it affects journalists too, who write about Putin. You can't imagine how much we have suffered from it. A couple of times I witnessed why that tardiness occurs. For example, he is meeting with journalists and then I thinks of some additional questions and I ask him one of them, as I am already leaving the room. And he says: Andrey, stay. That's when I realize what happens to him in real life. Then there are those endless telephone calls. I see how he speaks, how he is being distracted - if I can put it like that - from talking to me by Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin. They have quite an intense conversation lasting some 20 minutes. Because of that, he will inevitably be late somewhere. Kudrin believes that we need to repay 11bn dollars to the Paris Club, which is, shall we say, a rather difficult, to a certain degree, historic decision. I ask: And what have you decided? [Putin replies] We'll probably repay the money. In about a week's time there comes the news: Russia is repaying debts to the Paris Club.
[Kudrin] Although he shared the position that Russia should be more confident, should repay fewer debts and make fewer new debts and be less dependent in future on structures like the IMF, understanding that Russia should be quite independent and that in a critical situation it would be difficult to go around with an outstretched hand asking for help.
[Aleksandr Petrov, captioned as an entrepreneur in 2001] Prior to 1998, we were a country that was totally dependent on imports. I remember a time when 2,000 people in Krasnoufimsk were standing in the street and chanting: Give us insulin. That means that somebody needed it. That is why for me the new president gave hope that the buy-and-sell model was no longer in demand and that one should engage in production. Back then our team took the first decision to build a pharmaceutical plant meeting European standards. We set the bar very high then. Moreover, Vladimir Vladimirovich had to directly interfere with the foreign lobby that was putting pressure. Everybody kept telling me: five teams failed, what are you doing? What do you want to do? I am an ordinary man to whom Putin showed: you have ideas, pal, I'll simply help you. We created 300 jobs for young women who were unemployed. We realized that in addition to economic issues, we had addressed a bigger issue. There is enough insulin today to ensure Russia's pharmaceutical security. There are already deliveries to other countries and we are planning supplies to the EU. Isn't this a victory?
[Solovyev, interviewing Putin] Which moments do you remember as the most tragic, the most difficult ones?
[Putin] Those are, of course, those terrible terrorist attacks: Beslan, the Dubrovka theatre [siege]. If you ask about the most tragic moments, they were the most tragic ones, the most difficult thing that the whole of our nation had to go through.
[Patrushev, captioned as FSB director in 1999-2008] Do you remember Nord-Ost [the theatre siege in Moscow in Oct 02]? That was no ordinary act of terrorism. A building was seized, people were taken hostage. I briefed Putin constantly, practically day and night. He remained at work all throughout that time. Many had the idea that the main task was to kill the terrorists. Not at all. The main thing was to save people.
[Primakov] It was already night. Security guards were cut off, I was let in. I met the leader of that terrorist group, Movsar Barayev. He was not wearing a mask, but people with assault rifles standing nearby were all masked. I told him: Let the women and children out; nowhere in the Koran does it say that it is allowed to fight women and children. He replied: Unless an order is given to withdraw troops from Chechnya, meaning Russian troops, I shall be killing one hostage every 30 minutes, starting from 10 in the morning [end of quote]. After that I came to Vladimir Vladimirovich. Of course, he felt it keenly, of course, there was jaw clenching [Rus: zhelvaki khodili], of course. He did not tell me that the theatre building will be stormed at four the next morning.
[Shoygu] It was a terrible ordeal. There were too many of them for such a short period of time. Not a single president of a single country has been through so many ordeals, not one. Each of them, naturally, is a heavy burden on his shoulders, on his memory, on his heart.
[Kadyrov, over footage of the 9 May 04 terrorist attack at Groznyy stadium in which Akhmat Kadyrov was killed] That was the most horrible day for me. I could not even imagine [my life] without Akhmat-khadzhi. After the killing of Akhmat-khadzhi, he invited me, he received me.
[Putin, speaking at the meeting with Ramzan Kadyrov on 9 May 04] The president of the Chechen Republic, Akhmat-khadzhi Kadyrov, worthily and courageously carried out his duty to his people. Throughout all these years he shielded Chechnya and the Chechen people, and confidently led his republic to a peaceful life. Akhmat-khadzhi Kadyrov died on 9 May, on the day of our national holiday, Victory Day, and he died undefeated.
[Kadyrov] In the first [Chechen] campaign, I fought against the federal centre, it is no secret. We remember how we captured Groznyy. How we, shall we say, ceded Groznyy, we all remember the position the federal centre was in. That is why there was distrust in the federal centre and everybody, all young people went to the woods and to the mountains [to fight against Russian troops].
[Zaur Dimayev, captioned as deputy commander of Battalion No 4 of the Akhmat Kadyrov Regiment of the Chechen interior ministry] I was 18 in 1994. Everybody was called to join in the war, so I too joined in. There were different people there, Arabs, Jordanians, people from Africa too. They were mercenaries, as it were, they were fighting for money. We were not paid anything. We thought we were fighting for our homeland, for freedom. In 1999, when the second campaign started, I was on the federals' list so I could not stay at home, so I went to the woods again.
[Kadyrov] We had guys who had been amnestied and right after Akhmat-khadzhi's death there appeared rumours that they would be persecuted. There was a panic in the republic. I came to the president when I was in Moscow, we had a meeting. I told him: There is this situation, give us an opportunity to legalize them somehow; they are ready to fight for Russia, for our people. I remember all that, how difficult that decision was to take. But that was how it happened: we amnestied over 7,000 people. Those are not just 7,000 lives saved but 70,000 lives saved. Today our republic is a peaceful Chechen republic, it is a prosperous land and people are living a different life, they have a different outlook on life.
[Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia] I would like to say a somewhat unexpected thing, but Russian Orthodox believers, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, people who belong to traditional religions, i.e. religions that have traditionally existed on Russian territory, belong to the same civilization. One of its defining features is the acceptance of people of another religious tradition as one's own. The president, being a Russian Orthodox believer, attending Russian Orthodox churches, at the same time treats representatives of other religions as his brothers. He greets them on their holidays, he assists in rendering support in many issues that they present him with.
[Shaymiyev] As part of celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary [since the foundation of Kazan] we gathered in our Bolshoy [Drama] Theatre [in Kazan]. Vladimir Vladimirovich went on stage to deliver his address and suddenly he spoke in Tatar. You should have seen the ovation, the faces, the applause that followed. They did not let him continue. He was very quick, saying [in Russian]: Hold on a second, this is not all I have to say. And he continued in Tatar. The applause became even louder.
[Putin, speaking at the ceremony in Kazan on 26 Aug 05, in Russian] For those who are only beginning to learn the Tatar language and have not understood everything I said [laughter, applause], I would like to dwell on just one thought that was voiced right now. Kazan has played a truly unique historic role in the formation of the single Russian nation, in the emergence of the unified and cohesive Russian people.
[Shaymiyev] This ability to find a common language with the audience, for a leader at any level and especially for the leader of a state, is a gift, it is no easy thing.
[Poltavchenko] One could not say that he did one particular thing but he did perhaps the main thing. He came and he began to run the country. I remember regions which today are considered to be if not advanced then at least quite prosperous, say Kursk or Tambov, or Voronezh regions. They used to be nearly poverty-stricken, at least their capital cities: in 2000, wherever you went, there was no light, there was mud in the streets, the roads were nonexistent. And look at them today: people living in rural areas are making quite decent money, they now feed themselves, plus they feed Moscow and half of the country, at least half of the country.
[Sergey Vlasov, captioned as head of the milking operation at the Voshchazhnikovo agricultural enterprise] I was eager to try myself after graduation, to work in the field that my degree was in. When I saw all this for the first time, there was delight and joy.
[Andrey Gusev, chief livestock specialist at the Voshchazhnikovo agricultural enterprise] We love all our cows very much. In these conditions, it is their duty to live long and happily and bring us milk. I came here two years ago. I have a place to live and I have a stable job with a stable pay. If everyone does the work that they can, the whole country as a whole will improve. It all depends on us.
[Poltavchenko] It is very important. It is the state's food security.
Putin as a man of law
[Putin, in his address to the Federal Assembly on 16 May 03] Around us are countries with highly developed economies. It has to be said plainly that they are squeezing Russia out of promising world markets wherever they can. And their evident economic advantages give grounds for the growth of geopolitical ambitions. All our decisions and actions must be dedicated to ensuring that, in the foreseeable future, Russia will firmly take its place among the truly strong, economically advanced and influential states of the world. In a decade, we have to at least double the country's gross domestic product [applause].
[Zhukov] Many doubted that it was possible. Some were even laughing: doubling a zero should not be a problem.
[Kozak] To begin with, we established a transparent and clear mining tax and the state started to receive oil and gas revenues. Before that, they were considerably smaller and the system was extremely non-transparent and not fair. In 2003, the problem with Yukos arose.
[Potanin] As regards Khodorkovskiy, he was our colleague. How did it happen that things came to what they did, it is hard to say now. Frankly speaking, apart from personal sympathy for Khodorkovskiy, who spent 10 years, perhaps his prime years, where he did spend them [changes tack] It is like in a family when you explain to kids that certain things are off limits, they start checking if those things really are off limits or whether perhaps they may be slightly possible.
[Kudrin] It was not only Yukos that chose the path of reducing the tax burden through tax evasion, other companies were doing it too. Yukos was doing it on a bigger scale and after the Tax Service sorted out Yukos, many companies too paid considerable funds to the budget in additional tax charges on the strength of court rulings.
[Solovyev, in the interview with Putin] All of your friends are saying that Putin's main problem is that he studied in the Law Department, that he loves the law too much, that he always operates in strict compliance with the law, that it is impossible to force Putin to violate the law.
[Putin] It is true. I had very good teachers, very good teachers and I am very grateful to them. They instilled in our heads certain postulates, certain fundamental things that I believe to be right not only according to the book but right and necessary according to life. I don't remember if I told you this or not: when I came to work at the Leningrad directorate of the KGB, we were planning some low-level operation and one of our veterans suggested doing something and said: we should do this and that. There were quite a few people present and I told him: Excuse me, I think it may be illegal. To which - here is a curious thing - he looked at me in surprise and said: How come, we have this instruction, and he gives the number of an instruction of the KGB of the USSR. I tell him: If there is this instruction, it should be abolished because it is unlawful, it runs counter to the law and to the constitution. It is not a joke and I did not make it up, it really happened. I was very young, I had just joined [the KGB] straight from university. They all laughed at me. Thank God, it was 1976 and things were far removed from the period of reprisals, times were different.
[Passage omitted: a clip from a Russian TV report on Putin's visit to the Butovo range in Moscow where thousands of people were executed during Stalin purges]
[Kolesnikov] I was shaken by the story with the Butovo range. I walked the whole route together with him and I understood what was happening to him. I heard him saying: Dear God, what were they doing? To be honest with you, I have still not written in full of all that he said then because at some point it seemed to me that it was too personal a story. He saw the lists of those killed, the graves and, most importantly, he was walking on the soil in which those people were lying, where they were shot. At that moment it seemed to me, as the saying goes, that earth was burning under his feet, and it was not an exaggeration.
[Yasuhiro Yamashita, captioned as Olympic champion, four times world champion in judo, Japan; speaking in Japanese, with Russian translation superimposed] When meeting President Putin, after talking to him, I realized: he may appear very cold, composed, cold-headed and that's how he behaves. But I thought that there is warm blood flowing inside him, in his heart [over video of Putin greeting Japanese children at a judo club]. He is a man who does not like living in a shrewd, smart way. That is to say, he is a man who [changes tack] if in order to get some gain, some money, some profit he would have to do something that is unacceptable to him, he would never do those things. He had such a wonderful man as [Anatoliy] Rakhlin for his coach. When he taught judo to the president, he did not think of raising a president; he wanted with the help of judo to raise one more man, a person who would be standing firmly on his feet.
[Gref] I always say there are two beginnings to a person: there is his personal energy, his personal beginning, emotional, intellectual and so on; and there is the energy of the place, the energy of the seat [position the person occupies]. They always clash. If the energy of the seat is greater, the person's behaviour becomes very much deformed. If, however, the person's human essence is more powerful than the energy of the seat, the energy of money and so on, the person remains true to himself. I think Putin has such a powerful personal energy that it has overcome various phases in his career and he, as a person, has changed very little.
Putin as a man of the people
[Kudrin] He invited us to Zavidovo, it was August. We sat in a small pavilion, there were several of us there. And he proposed the idea of national projects for education, health care, agriculture and housing programmes.
[Dmitriy Guryev, captioned as chief doctor of a regional perinatal centre, Yaroslavl] When perinatal centres were set up in Russia, when the perinatal centre in Yaroslavl was launched, we felt it: there has been a dramatic increase in births here.
[Passage omitted: a woman who has just given birth there is briefly interviewed, introducing her newborn twins]
[Guryev] Every year the number of births at the perinatal centre is on the rise. Over the past 12 months, there were 500 more births than in the previous 12 months.
[Patriarch Kirill] Take the issue of maternity capital. It is not just about the promotion of family values, the promotion of the idea that a large family is a good thing. It is a real state policy aimed to support births. It is a question of an overall outlook on life. This is the main thing.
[Nazarbayev] You know, presidents have to address multifaceted tasks: economy, politics, health care, education, infrastructure, oil and gas, international relations, you name it. There is nowhere when one gets to be trained to become a president, you just become one. He has a unique ability to grasp an issue. He himself has a saying: I'll immerse myself in this topic and then we'll discuss it.
[Shoygu, this time captioned as Russian defence minister] He constantly wants to learn something new and he does it. Without anybody noticing, he has learnt English. Pph, and Putin already speaks English. [Passage omitted: a clip from Putin's interview to Larry King, when he says, in English: "My English is very bad"]
[Sergey Ivanov] Never forget that he goes not have either days off or vacations and has not had them for a long time. He does it [his extracurricular activities] between one and two in the morning or between seven and eight in the morning. He has no other option. But still he does it. Like, he had never skated and now he plays ice-hockey.
[Potanin] He does not raise his voice, he never shouts at anyone. So he is hiding his temper inside him. For Putin, skiing, at early stages, was about very intensive training. That is why when you see him on the mountain, he is going up and down for hours: the man comes to the mountains for two and a half or three hours, he does not have time for a cup of tea or a chat, it's all up and down, up and down.
[Peskov] I don't know where and how he learnt to play the piano. I only know that he was doing it consistently. First we all saw how he played with one finger, then with one hand, then after some days the other hand joined in. [Video shows Putin performing "Blueberry Hill" at a charity concert in 2010]
[Nikolay Rastorguyev, singer, captioned as a People's Artist of Russia] He comes from a working family living on the outskirts of a city, same as millions of others, millions of his compatriots, same as me, as you.
[Patrushev] He was brought up in a communal flat. In fact, it had a serious influence on him.
[Gref] Paradoxical as it may seem, 80 per cent of the population often hear and understand him better than the 20 per cent comprised of officials and the intelligentsia. I think, he sees his role as that of a defender of ordinary people.
[Peskov] People keep passing him various letters, notes, sometimes scrawled in pencil on a piece of paper. He takes them or, if his hands are full, he passes all those notes to one of his aides. The scariest thing for the aides is when a couple of hours later he asks: Where are all those papers? [The aides reply:] What papers? [Putin:] Those papers that babushka gave me when we stopped in the street.
[Miller, this time captioned as chairman of the management committee of Gazprom] The phone rings, he says: during my trip somewhere, a babushka came up to me, a family appealed to me, I was accompanied on that trip by the official in charge, he has all the necessary information, call him to resolve the matter please.
[Passage omitted: Putin meets people in the street, asking them how they are doing; place, date not given]
[Solovyev, interviewing Putin] You are interested in what people tell you, you look at people you are talking to and you want to hear what they say. Why is that? Because you are looking for another source of information, for a tuning fork?
[Putin] I don't try to find any additional sources of information, any tuning forks. I don't need to go looking because I have all that already. I don't even know why, it's hard for me to say. I'm not saying that to sound good, I simply feel that I am part of our country and of our people. Of course, it is important for me, when we meet with people I pick up these signals straight away. I can sense when people are unhappy about something, or concerned, or worried. Of course, that kind of feedback is essential. But it could have been water off a duck's back, but for me, thank God, the sense is still there and I can feel it immediately. This is because I've never been in the so-called elites, which themselves are not a bad thing. When people live in a different stratum, are born there, it is not a bad thing at all. Thank God, it offers great advantages when people are born, live and are brought up in an elite environment, there are positives sides to that too. I have been watching them for a long time and I treat these people with huge respect and I am even a little bit envious of them because from their first steps in life they manage to absorb many important, useful things, which help them achieve big results in certain, in various areas. However, for a man doing the job that I do today, that I have been doing for the past years, this connection with people and sense of closeness to them, to ordinary people, are hugely important and a great help to me in my work.
[Nikita Mikhalkov, film director, captioned as a People's Artist of Russia] My mother used to say to me: beware of people who dream of power, go to those people for whom power is a cross. I came to Vladimir Vladimirovich and told him: Vladimir Vladimirovich, [Ivan] Ilyin must be reburied. Ilyin is a Russian philosopher of genius. He was a man who throughout his life tried to explain to himself and to others and to understand what was happening in Russia and why. Ilyin died abroad, in Switzerland. To cut the long story short, the lease on the land under Ilyin's grave was running up. Under Swiss laws, after a while, if a grave is abandoned, if there are no relatives left, another person could be buried in that grave. Vladimir Vladimirovich heard that and he took it very close to heart and it was decided to rebury Ilyin in the Donskoy Monastery cemetery [in Moscow]. [Passage omitted: the then Patriarch of Russia, Aleksiy II, and Mikhalkov speak at the reburial ceremony]
The reburial of Ilyin, of Denikin and prior to that the reburial of Shmelev, our outstanding writer, all these are episodes aimed at consolidation, at ending the civil war in the minds. It is a movement towards bringing together the spiritual force carried by those astonishing Russian people, who had devoted their whole lives to thoughts and deeds connected to Russia. If you see the scale of the country and try to make this atmosphere a shared experience, only then 80 per cent can tell you: Yes, we are with you. Furthermore, these are people who are leading hard lives, people who have problems, people who have many complaints to the local authorities and to the supreme authorities. But when they see that sitting above them is a person for whom power is a cross and he carries it, and he consolidates society and for him only national interests become his personal interests, when he carries responsibility for everyone, for the whole country; only then people, who are having a hard life, can say: Yes, we are with you, we shall bear it.
Securing Sochi Olympic bid
[Dmitriy Chernyshenko, captioned as general director of the Sochi 2014 bidding committee] At that time, young Russia did not have any large-scale victories and large-scale projects that could demonstrate to the whole world that we are not a splinter of a great empire but an independent, big, and significant country with its achievements, with its ambitions. In 2005 we submitted a bid to host winter Olympics.
[Zhukov] I have to confess, I personally did not really believe that our Olympic bid would be successful.
[Potanin] Ahead of the International Olympic Committee session in Guatemala, when we were thinking whether Putin should go there or not - suppose we lose it - I told him: Vladimir Vladimirovich, if you do not come, I guarantee it that we shall lose; but if you do come, there is still risk that we shall lose, but without your coming, we have no chance whatsoever.
[Zhukov] When Vladimir Vladimirovich arrived in Guatemala, over two days he had probably 30-40 meetings with key members of the International Olympic Committee. They lasted nonstop, day and night.
[Chernyshenko] There was a rehearsal that he attended. We rehearsed entry and he very patiently took part in it. For us the most important thing was to get the timings right. He took out his sheets of paper. I pricked my ears. He asked me: Are you ready? I said: Yes. He said: Here we go. I pressed the stopwatch and nothing happened: he was reading the speech to himself; [then Putin said] that's it.
[Passage omitted: an excerpt of Putin concluding his speech in Guatemala in French]
[Potanin] It was like an explosion, a bombshell. It was necessary to show, as the saying goes, respect [he uses youth slang word: uvazhukha] to the International Olympic Committee so that they realized that they had been shown a gesture of true respect. Those two phrases in French did it. The Olympics was ours.
[Gref, captioned as chairman of the board of Sberbank] The country is perhaps the main value. Followed perhaps by the family and personal relations, friendship. He always shows loyalty to friendship. I know how keenly he feels personal betrayals. I know people with whom he used to have very good relations but after they committed certain things that did not agree with his notion of decency and integrity, he simply cut them off and never met with them after that.
[Shoygu] As for personal relations, they are personal so are not for a public discussion really, but I can say several things. Some time ago, in 1999, a CD was recorded, called "Songs of a Country That Is No More". Those are very good songs and the performers are very good. Everything is [good] there: the lyrics and the music. We sing them sometimes.
Russia's changed international standing
[Nazarbayev] There is a saying that we choose our friends and enemies but our neighbours are given to us by the Almighty. We are neighbours given to each other by God. I don't think anybody has such close, good-neighbourly, allied relations as Russia and Kazakhstan do. This is an objective reality. Let no-one be offended by it: we are the countries closest to each other. We are now discussing a Eurasian Economic Union. This project has been proposed by me. They keep saying that Russia is reassembling the Soviet Union, is summoning everyone and so on. I proposed that. If a European Union is created that is OK but if we start saying something, it is a bad thing. This is the usual approach to these issues.
[Peskov] Desperate attempts by some countries to retain their role of the only centre of development, the only centre of world control have resulted in that international law became diluted, the notion of international security, of European security became diluted, an erosion of the Yalta system began.
[Putin, speaking at the Munich security conference on 10 Feb 07] The history of mankind, of course, knows unipolar periods and drives towards world domination. The history of mankind knows everything and more. But what is a unipolar world? However embellished this term may be, in the final analysis it means in practice one thing: a single centre of power, a single centre of force and a single decision-making centre. This is the world of one master, one sovereign.
[Kolesnikov] I was surprised by the reaction of German and other foreign journalists. They forgot that they were journalists, they stopped taking notes, they were just sitting there with their mouths open, watching and listening to what he was saying.
[Putin, speaking at the Munich security conference on 10 Feb 07] Unilateral and often illegal actions have not resolved a single problem. Moreover, they have generated new human tragedies and seats of tension.
[Sergey Ivanov, this time captioned as Russian defence minister in 2001-2007] On the one hand, there was shock, on the other, there was hidden displeasure. People came up to me [asking]: Did it have to be so harsh? I told them: What was so harsh?
[Robert Gates, speaking at the same conference] As an old cold warrior, one of yesterday's speeches almost filled me with nostalgia for a less complex time. Almost. Many of you have backgrounds in diplomacy or politics. I have, like your second speaker yesterday, a starkly different background a career in the spy business. And, I guess, old spies have a habit of blunt speaking.
[Putin, answering questions at the Munich conference] I'll answer those questions that I can read myself. If I miss something out, please remind me your questions. What will happen in Kosovo, with Serbia? Only Kosovars and Serbs can know that. Let us not decide for them how they will arrange their lives. We should not pretend to be God and try to resolve problems of all people. We can only create conditions and help people to resolve their problems.
[Sergey Ivanov] We first met with Putin in a very small unit of a very large organization. The large organization is, of course, the KGB of the USSR and the small unit, which is indeed very small, is the foreign intelligence unit. We served as young officers, senior lieutenants, captains. Back then there were undercover agents working in our unit, those who came back to their motherland having spent 20 years working undercover in the West. We sometimes remember them with Vladimir Vladimirovich, when we have a spare moment. Those people, as you can imagine, did not serve for money, they ran a huge risk as no matter what could have happened to them, they were undercover. They were a living example: they worked for the country, for Fatherland. This is the essence, without any political colouring, ideology and so on.
[Kudrin, this time captioned as chairman of the Civil Initiatives Committee] After serving in the KGB, in intelligence, his entry into a democratic life, his introduction to the new rules of life, to new opportunities took place when he was working under [St Petersburg governor Anatoliy] Sobchak. It was Sobchak, who was a striking individual and one of the leading figures at the time, who sped up his understanding of what was happening. We all had our roots in the state, we thought that the state should prevail above everything. I think Sobchak taught us all how this could be balanced, where we could see new opportunities of a democratic country, of a democratic order: freedom of opinion, of discussion, defence of one's opinion, political competition.
Putin's tenure as prime minister
[Peskov] In 2008, having served two terms as president, Putin had an incredibly high popularity rating.
[Valeriy Gergiyev, captioned as artistic director of the Mariyinskiy Theatre] The question was whether Putin will stay for a third term or will he, in compliance with the constitution, give up this seat, which is of enormous significance for the country that was still not strong enough, to another leader. That question was on everybody's mind. That was all that everybody spoke and thought about.
[Journalist Natalya Galimova, asking Putin at his annual news conference on 14 Feb 08] Vladimir Vladimirovich, over the past two to three years you have been increasingly urged to stay for a third term. You must have been under certain pressure from people in your inner circle, some people. How strong was the temptation to give in to those appeals and to stay for a third term? Thank you.
[Putin, replying] I was not tempted to stay on for a third term. Never. From the first day in my post as president of the Russian Federation, I immediately resolved that I would not violate the current constitution. I received this inoculation back when I worked for [St Petersburg mayor] Anatoliy Aleksandrovich Sobchak. I think that this is a very important message to society at large. Everyone should observe the law of the land, starting with the head of state
[Journalist Aleksandr Gamov, at the same news conference] What do you think was your biggest success, your biggest achievement as the head of state and what was your biggest failure? Thank you.
[Putin] I do not see any serious failures. All the goals that were set have been achieved, tasks completed. I am not ashamed to face the citizens who voted for me twice at the Russian presidential elections. All these eight years I have worked like a slave on a galley, morning till night. And I put my all into it. I am satisfied with the results of my work.
[Passage omitted: a compilation of clips from Russian TV reports: on celebrations of the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg; on a new medical centre opened in Beslan; on a new tanker launched; a new mosque built in Groznyy; a missile test launch from a submarine in the Barents Sea; on the rally in Red Square after the presidential election on 2 Mar 08, with Putin standing next to the newly elected President Medvedev]
[Peskov] In 2008, when Putin started working as prime minister, it seemed that it would be a time of resting on one's laurels for him. He had been the head of state, he had saved the country from disintegration, he had set it on a path of stable development, he had paid all debts, both external and internal; he had raised people's living standards, furthermore he had done it not for future generations but for the present one, which had never been done before in the history of our country. In theory, he should have walked into that wonderful White House in Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment [Russian government headquarters], sat down in his office and said: Thank God. Bang: there comes an economic crisis.
[Gref] The price of oil was 45. Everybody was frightened. Nobody had experienced such stress on a global scale.
[Peskov] So what did Putin do? He came out and said: I take on the responsibility for preventing a repetition of 1998. I am personally responsible for that. He rolled up his sleeves, sat working day and night and began to row again at that galley of his.
[Zhukov, this time captioned as Russian deputy prime minister in 2004-2011] The fate of tens of thousands of people was at stake. Had there been no help from the state, they would have simply ended in the streets and become unemployed.
[Passage omitted: Putin is being shown around an industrial enterprise in the Leningrad Region town of Pikalevo on 4 Jun 09, wrongly time-stamped in the film as taking place on 4 Jun 08]
[Oleg Deripaska, captioned as president of the Rusal company] There were three shareholding companies operating on the same platform. At one point it got so confusing that we were not able to find a solution that could ensure the operation of the enterprise.
[Putin, at a meeting in Pikalevo on 4 Jun 09, ordering Deripaska to come forward and sign a contract with one of his plant's suppliers that would allow all the factories to resume production] I don't see your signature. Come here, sign it. Come, come here. This is the agreement. Give me back my pen. I believe that you made thousands of people hostage to your ambitions, incompetence, or maybe plain greed. This is absolutely unacceptable. Where is business's social responsibility? Where is it?
[Deripaska, present-day interview] You see, this is not about being offended or something. One can spend a long time discussing things; one can go into a stupor, failing to decide anything. He knows that the buck stops with him: he is the one who has to take these decisions, or give a push so that these issues are not just being discussed but some actions are taken at last.
[Putin, at the same 4 Jun 09 meeting at Pikalevo] Now as regards the administration. Nobody will convince me that the heads of the region and leaders on other levels did everything they could to help the people. When I said I was going to arrive, what did you tell me? No, don't come, let me show you another factory which was built recently. Of course, well done for building a new factory. Why was everyone running around like cockroaches before my arrival? Why was no-one here capable of making decisions? All wage arrears must be paid off. This is R41,242,000. The deadline is today. Thank you. Good luck to you.
[Konstantin Sharomov, captioned as control operator at Hot Rolling Mill 5000 at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works] During the crisis, when redundancies began, the plant launched this huge project, Mill 5000. It saved people from joblessness. Now the pipes we make are supplied for complex pipelines, like Nord Stream, Power of Siberia, for the production of submarines.
[Andrey Tishkin, senior operator at Hot Rolling Mill 5000 at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works] Naturally, this has an effect on wages. I think in recent years our living standards have improved considerably.
[Sharomov] We see real changes here. Traditionally in Russia people believe more in deeds than in words.
Russian military operation in Georgia in 2008
[Nazarbayev] On 8 August 2008, if you remember, there was the opening of the Beijing Olympics. We happened to be in the same residence and in the same room, were he was staying. We were sitting and talking, when the telephone rang. I told him: Vladimir Vladimirovich, I'll be going. He replied: No, stay please. He was being briefed on what was happening in [South] Ossetia. When he put the receiver down he looked very upset. I asked him: What is it? I thought he may have heard some bad news from home. I had never seen him like that. And he told me: Can you imagine, our peacekeepers were attacked and several soldiers were killed. What are they doing? What are they doing?
[Dmitriy Medvedev, captioned as Russian president in 2008-2012] The situation was developing dramatically for 17 years. For 17 years, the Russian Federation was performing peacekeeping functions, assisting in preserving peace there, preventing murders that had been happening there since the 1990s and trying to preserve the unity of the Georgian state. Nevertheless, after the aggression and genocide unleashed by the Saakashvili regime, the situation changed and our main task was to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, to save the lives of people who we are responsible for.
[Peskov] He immediately decided to go from Beijing to Ossetia.
[Shoygu] Of course, the first thing he did was to see the people, which is typical. He had been informed of all the military issues on his way and the first thing he did was to see people, to visit refugee camps, hospitals where the wounded were.
[Passage omitted: a woman at a refugee camp describes her hardships to Putin]
[Peskov] He was accompanied by a personal photographer and a personal cameraman. And he told them, rather harshly, to stop filming because, indeed, those women were in such a distress. It was pitch dark and the cameraman used his camera lamp to light the road so that nobody tripped.
[Solovyev, interviewing Putin] Yours is a presidency of ordeals: once you have dealt with one, another comes: the Chechen campaign, terrorist attacks, the [2008 economic] crisis, Ossetia. There is this endless string of events. The moment one has been dealt with, another comes, again and again. Do you feel more comfortable as a leader when there is a war going on or when there is peace and everyday hard work?
[Putin] I worked as chairman of the government. I like that work very much. It is specific, it is clear, well not clear but at least it is more focused on specific issues and you can see the results straight away, what you did right, what you didn't do right, where you made a mistake. When a task becomes more global in nature, the result is not immediately clear, it is not immediately clear what it will be and what it will look like some time later. In fact, I have never considered this. I always proceed from the reality there is and address the tasks that face me.
[Potanin] In early 2009, I was at a meeting with Putin in Sochi, when Olympic facilities were discussed. During the meeting, Putin many times said it was necessary to save budget money, that on the one hand it was necessary to build beautiful and top-notch facilities but, on the other, there was a crisis going on and there was not much money in the budget and we should save money. At some point, having once again mentioned the need to economize, he said: this is people's money. He said is quietly, without any grandiloquence, but his voice quivered as he did so. It was clear that he took it close to heart, he truly believed that it was people's money, in other words, earned by the whole of the country. Therefore it should be spent with care.
[Kolesnikov] There had never before been so many work trips to enterprises, to plants, to Rosselmash, to Avtovaz and so on. Furthermore, it was the summer when terrible [forest] fires were raging. We visited those burning villages literally every other day, met with people, who, it seemed, were ready to tear to pieces every representative of the authorities who showed their face there.
[Passage omitted: Putin, on a visit to a Nizhniy Novgorod Region village devastated by fires, on 30 Jul 10, promising local people that new housing will be built for them "by the winter"]
[Kolesnikov] Those visits of his premiership, enveloped in smoke and fire, is the first thing that come to mind. It was real toil [Rus: pakhota] back then, daily, getting one's hands dirty, it was real work in the field. Later, I remember, we visited the same places after the new housing was built there.
[Passage omitted: Putin is shown around a new house by a happy woman living in it.]
Opposition protests
[Medvedev, speaking at the One Russia party congress on 24 Sep 11] Given the offer to top the party list and engage in party work, and given a successful run at the elections and my readiness to pursue practical work in the government, I believe that it would be appropriate for the congress to back the candidacy of the chairman of the party, Vladimir Putin, for the post of the president of the country.
[Kolesnikov] When Medvedev proposed Putin and Putin proposed Medvedev, everybody thought then that it was rather, shall we say, arrogant in relation to voters, that there was no real election. Those who did not vote for Putin in the presidential election came to Bolotnaya Square to say: We have a different opinion.
[Prilepin] I went to Bolotnaya, to have a look at what was happening there. They seized the rostrum and immediately began to appoint those who were given access to it and those who were denied it. Then I was sitting in nearby bars and listening to their fantastical conversations that they will sweep away the authorities, that they have won, that they have come out [to the streets]. I found it all terribly funny already then.
[Kudrin] I talked to him in detail. I said that maybe I would go to Prospekt Sakharova [street in Moscow, where another opposition protest was held]. I will not say what he said to me, but at least there were no restrictions. I considered that the Sakharov rally would for the first time gather those strata of the middle-class who had never attended a protest.
[Kudrin, addressing the Prospekt Sakharova rally on 24 Dec 11] It is necessary to arrange a platform for a dialogue. Otherwise there will be a revolution, otherwise we shall lose the chance that we have today.
[Kudrin, present-day interview] I tried to push both the authorities and Putin to find new forms of such a dialogue with people who were sincerely concerned about the situation in the country. But as those people got very much mixed together with more radical structures and with nationalists, I later saw that Putin did not want to do so, and did not see amongst them any representatives with whom to hold a dialogue.
[Kolesnikov] In Putin's opinion, they crossed the red line then [at the Bolotnaya rally on 6 May 12]. They started beating policemen. It was decided that an investigation should be held. If those reports prove to be true, if a particular person hit a policeman, he should go to prison. And this was what began to happen. The main thing was that it was not only in compliance with the laws of the Russian Federation, but it was also in compliance with Putin's inner laws.
[Journalist Aleksandr Gamov, asking Putin at a news conference on 9 Sep 12] Your consistent opponent Kseniya Sobchak transposed that whole situation [Putin's famed hang-glider flight with cranes on 6 Sep 12] to electoral statistics and said that 63 per cent of the cranes followed Putin, the rest preferred to fly south, and only a small portion stayed behind to build nests on the squares and boulevards. Not all the cranes followed Putin.
[Putin's reply] Indeed, not all cranes flew at once. They were weak cranes that did not fly [applause and laughter from the audience]. And that even at first try - at the second try they all flew [applause again]. But I have to admit frankly that the leader, the pilot is also to blame that not all cranes flew. It's just that at certain moments - I mean bad weather and side wind - the pilot has to gather speed and height quickly, otherwise the system can turn over. What else can I add? There are of course birds that do not fly in flocks at all, they prefer to nest somewhere separately. But what is there to do? It is another problem. In any case, even if they are not part of the flock, they are still part of our population, and we need to look after them as much as we can.
[Peskov] There were people, for example Khodorkovskiy, Berezovskiy, who adopted an absolutely irreconcilable, aggressive position towards him.
[Journalist Aleksandr Yunashev, at the annual news conference on 18 Dec 14 ] Vladimir Vladimirovich, a year ago, you pardoned Khodorkovskiy. He promised you then that he would not engage in politics. But today he declares almost presidential ambitions. My question is: do you have any regrets?
[Putin, in reply] And where will he run for president? [laughter from the audience] Mr Khodorkovskiy did ask for a pardon, at least he sent a relevant petition and seemed to have no intention to engage in politics. But when I was considering the pardon, I didn't proceed from what he could or couldn't do, or whether he would or wouldn't engage in politics. It's his choice. I took my decision out of humanitarian considerations. He said in his letter that his mother was gravely ill. You know, mother is sacred. I am not being ironic. And he had almost served out his term in prison. Did it make any sense to keep him there, bearing in mind that he wouldn't even have a chance to say good-bye to his mother?
[Peskov] Of course, the mother played her part because one's humanity is very important. Berezovskiy wanted to return to the country. Berezovskiy spoke of his love of this country and so on.
[Putin, speaking during the annual phone-in on 25 Apr 13] Well, he wrote that he had made a lot of mistakes and caused great damage, and asked for forgiveness and the opportunity to return to his homeland.
[Peskov] He was ready to allow him to return to the country. He is a strong enough person to forgive those who are implacable towards him.
The West loves Russia only when it is weak
[Passage omitted: clips from foreign media reports on President Obama's visit to Russia to attend the G20 summit in St Petersburg in Sep 13 and the discussion of Syria there]
[Sergey Lavrov, captioned as Russian foreign minister] Several days before the decision to start bombing Damascus was expected with the aim to topple the regime under the pretext of an alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian authorities - no-one has ever supplied any evidence of that - Putin put forward at the G20 summit in St Petersburg an idea, simply saying: if you are so worried about chemical weapons, let's get Syria to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention and to undertake to destroy them. There is no need for bombings, if your concern is about chemical weapons and nothing else. We are ready to use our influence in order to get Syria to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and sign an agreement on its elimination with the relevant organization.
[Putin, speaking at a news conference after the G20 summit on 6 Sep 13] I would like to remind you that using force against a sovereign state is only possible in self-defence - but Syria is not attacking the United States, as is well-known - and, second, on the basis of a decision of the UN Security Council. As one of the participants in yesterday's discussion said: Those who act otherwise are putting themselves outside the law.
[Peskov] There was practically no dialogue at first; there was a handshake at the welcoming ceremony. Some described it as cold, some as timid, some as aggressive. On the following morning, without any planning at all, a contact took place. All the G20 participants then saw that they began talking, Putin and Obama. Having started that conversation standing, they then sat down in the corner of a small hall. It lasted several minutes to begin with and all the other heads of state were standing and waiting. It went on for five, then 10 minutes. Naturally, they did not see what was happening around. From the point of view of the protocol, there was probably an awkward pause. But in fact there was no pause because all the other heads of state, they all were throwing glances into the corner where the two presidents were sitting and you could feel that there was an absolute understanding of the importance that chat had for the whole world. Of course, Putin and Obama did not manage to resolve the Syria problem. But the disposal of stockpiles of chemical weapons, which Syria had at the time, did take place and it has been completed. And who knows: had they not reached an agreement on the disposal of chemical weapons back then, what could have happened now, had those weapons ended up in the hands of ISIS, in the hands of those people who are behind those beheadings, who burn people alive and so on.
[Lavrov] He invites his partners to agree not a half-step ahead, not just a couple of years ahead, before the next election when it is necessary to present voters with a high-profile, sparkling victory, but a little bit further ahead, inviting them to look over the horizon. This is what makes Putin different from our Western colleagues.
[Solovyev] You are offering this concept of justice to the world and suddenly it turns out that the world does not want to listen to you, that it calls the white black and the black, white. Have they become afraid of the role that Russia is now playing in the world, when from a practically disappearing power it suddenly turned into a powerful political player, when you became, if you will, the leader of the conservative section of both European and American society?
[Putin] You are digging deep. I sometimes get the impression that they love us when they need to send us humanitarian aid. Then everything is well, then they are sending us potatoes, for which we are very grateful by the way. I am not being ironic here. Many people did it very sincerely, especially ordinary people. However, the so-called ruling circles, elites - political and economic - of those counties, they love us when we are impoverished, poor, and when we come hat in hand. As soon as we start declaring some interests of our own, they feel that there is some element of geopolitical rivalry. And who would like it? Would you like it if a new person joined your TV channel, efficient, strong, young, well-brought-up, well-educated, and started to gradually push you aside? You too would start resisting and fighting him. That's the way it happens everywhere in nature; and in international relations too.
I am profoundly convinced that we are not breaking any rules of the game. When I say the rules of the game, I mean, above all, international, public international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and everything connected with it. This concerns our relations with Ukraine. This concerns the situation in Crimea. This concerns the position we adopt in other regions of the world in the fight against international terrorism. This concerns our problems in the area of global security. What is meant is, for example, our attitude to the United States of America withdrawing from the fundamental treaty on the limitation of missile defences. When we start discussing all this, when we say that we are being threatened, for example, by the expansion of NATO to the east, by military infrastructure approaching our borders, then there appears a desire to confront us. And now this has acquired the form we are seeing. That is precisely what the so-called sanctions are. This is nothing but - I spoke about it in my address [to the Federal Assembly] I think - an attempt to contain Russia's development. We have been witnessing such attempts throughout Russian history, starting back in Tsarist times. This attempt to contain Russia, this policy has been known for a long time, for hundreds of years. There is nothing new about it. So, we should not worry about it too much.
[Adelina Sotnikova, captioned as Olympic champion in figure skating; following a compilation of Sochi-2014 footage of Russian athletes' triumphs, set to stirring music] When the [Russian] flag was being raised, I sang very loudly. You could say I was shouting. Because I had won under our flag and I wanted to sing very loudly, to shout.
Crimea
[Prilepin] During the Olympics, when all those events were taking place in Kiev, in Ukraine, when Kiev became engaged in all that anti-Putin not even propaganda but hysteria - Putin has come, Putin is killing the Maydan, Putin is shooting our children - all that was taking place and all that was turning from an individual story into a public and a state one, and into inability to cope with the situation and into Western partners' behaviour. And you could see Putin clench his jaw [Rus: zhelvaki dvigalis'] and I realized that a new story would start from that facial movement because no word was said, no glass was put on the table this time, everything was very peaceful and calm but it was clear that he had felt himself a representative of Russia as of an entity that was not being respected, that was being pushed aside, that was being humiliated. It is a feeling of being commensurable to the statehood, to the country, to the history of that country. It was the sense of a mission. You start to understand that this is it, this is history.
[Putin, in the present-day interview to Solovyev] The most important thing for us was to understand what the people living in Crimea wanted. What did they want? Did they want to remain in Ukraine or did they want to be with Russia? If the people want to return to Russia and do not want to be governed by neo-Nazis, radical nationalists and Banderites, we have no right to abandon them. This is an absolutely matter of principle. This is what I told my partners then. I told them that for us it was an essential matter, the people. I do not know what interests you will protect, but we, as we defend ours, will go all the way. And this is an extremely important thing. Not because we want to bite something off, to snatch it. And not even because Crimea is of strategic importance in the Black Sea region. But because it is an element of historical justice. I believe that we did the right thing, and I do not regret anything.
[Nikolay Rastorguyev, singer] We flew in to Crimea on the day of the referendum. It was an incredible feeling. We saw whole families in the streets, with balloons, with Russian flags, children waving small flags. And they all were going to the polling stations, with happy faces. I saw sober men crying in the square in Simferopol, and they were sober. [The men were crying] out of an incredible feeling of happiness that finally they had returned home. We went on stage right on our arrival and performed the song "From Crimea to Yenisey". They were incredibly happy, everybody whom I saw.
[Putin, addressing a rally in Red Square on 18 Mar 14] After a hard, long and exhausting voyage, Crimea and Sevastopol are coming back to the home harbour, to the home shores, to the home port, to Russia!
Putin's legacy
[Akzhana Abdikarimova, captioned as a biathlete, a participant in the Sochi-2014 Winter Paralympics] He's great. He is down-to-earth and cool. I like him. I think, of course, he is tough when he has to be tough. Still I think that when you are the president of a country like this, a big, huge, strong country, you should be the same as your country, big and strong.
[Peskov] The generation that grew under Putin make up the majority of our society, those who will lead Russia into the next 50 years. It is a generation that has gradually learnt to say the word patriotism. It is a generation that has learnt to wear clothes that have the Russian flag on them and be proud of that. It is a generation that knows that certain things in our country are much better than elsewhere in the world.
[Aleksandr Petrov, this time captioned as a member of the All-Russia People's Front] What was there 15 years ago? Distrust and chaos in the minds. Then there came hope and today there is a boundless faith in that we are right in how we are going about building a new state. It is not just that over these 15 years a lot has changed. We have changed completely. Our society has become different. We see a new, powerful, self-sufficient Russia, a Russia that knows now to defend itself.
[Aleksey Miller] I once went to Vladimir and to Suzdal to see the sights. In one convent in Suzdal, I was writing health notes [with people's names for the priest to mention them in prayers] and somebody there recognized me. The Mother Superior came up to me and said: Aleksey Borisovich, do you know that over the past year, there has been a sharp increase in the number of notes for prayers for the health of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? She said: This is what people put in their notes - simply, the president of the Russian Federation.
[Monk Zosima, captioned as a monk of the St Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos] Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin visited our monastery on 9 September 2005. That was the first visit by the Russian head of state in the history of Mount Athos.
[Monk Deacon Yevstafiy, captioned as monk of the St Modest Kathisma at the Simonopetra Monastery on Mount Athos] After the official welcome ceremony in the Mount Athos capital of Karyes, Vladimir Vladimirovich himself drove a car to the Iviron Monastery. As he was leaving, there was an Athos mule standing by the road. A police car went first, then I followed in my car, the president was coming after me. Right in front of his car that mule for some reason walked out to the road and began running right in the middle of the road, ahead of the president's car. When the president tried to move slightly to the left, the mule did too; when the president moved to the right, the mule did too. That was the situation. I think the president realized that something was up and he just followed the donkey. I can tell you: nothing like this had ever happened on Mount Athos: for a mule to run in front of a car, not letting it in. Nothing like that had ever happened. On our way back, again the police car went first, then came my car and we saw that the donkey was standing on the same spot and watching us, as if it had been waiting for us. It let us pass, no problem. We stopped to see what happens next. When Vladimir Vladimirovich's car appeared from around the corner, the mule - as if it had been waiting for this - immediately ran to the road - I and the police car were watching this - and began running in the middle of the road ahead of the president's car, this time uphill, which is harder. When the donkey slowed down a bit, as it must have been getting tired running uphill, Vladimir Vladimirovich too slowed down a bit, he did not overtake it. The donkey then slowed down to a walking speed, it was clear that it was out of breath. Then Vladimir Vladimirovich slowly overtook it on the left, pulled level with it, and stopped. The donkey too immediately stopped. They stood there for some minutes. I did not time it, so I cannot say exactly how long. We saw them standing there. Honestly speaking, I do not know what to make of it. But I would like to say one thing: I think it was a sign from Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Mount Athos, for the president. I think he perhaps could understand it better than me.
[Peskov] He never takes part in any event without preparation. When he holds his annual news conference or the Direct Line [televised question-and-answer session with members of the public] he prepares for many days in advance. He then becomes 100-per-cent focused. Every time, there is a certain tension. I think it has to do with internal discipline. The thing is that when a president comes out and says something, and a president like Putin at that, the price of his word is too high.
[Journalist Anton Vernitskiy, asking Putin at the annual news conference on 18 Dec 14] Vladimir Vladimirovich, are the current economic developments the price we have to pay for Crimea? Maybe the time has come to acknowledge it?
[Putin] No. This is not the price we have to pay for Crimea. This is actually the price we have to pay for our natural aspiration to preserve ourselves as a nation, as a civilisation, as a state. At the Valdai [International Discussion] Club I gave an example of our most recognisable symbol. It is a bear protecting his taiga. You see, if we continue the analogy, sometimes I think that maybe it would be best if our bear just sat still. Maybe he should stop chasing pigs and boars around the taiga but start picking berries and eating honey. Maybe then he will be left alone. But no, he won't be. Because someone will always try to chain him up. As soon as he's chained they will tear out his teeth and claws. Once they have pulled out his teeth and claws, there will no longer be any use for the bear. He will be stuffed and that's it. So this is not about Crimea. This is about us defending our independence, our sovereignty and the right to exist. This is what we all should realize
Putin pays tribute to Russian armed forces
[Solovyev, interviewing Putin] When Crimea started and there was this upsurge in patriotism, it suddenly turned out that we have an army. It suddenly turned out that we have a military-industrial complex. It suddenly turned out that despite all those statements, including from liberal members of your team, that Russia should not be spending money on defence, somehow little by little, without anyone noticing, a military-industrial complex has been formed that one can once again be proud of.
[Putin] Had we not had the military-industrial complex and the army, we could not have overcome all the problems to do with the fight against international terrorism. Even in the most difficult times, from the point of view of the economy, in the early 2000s, we were struggling to get together an army and then, I already spoke about this, given the total headcount of 1,300,000 people, with difficulty I gathered together 50,000, pulled in troops from the Far East, naval infantry from the Northern Fleet and we got together 50,000 in combat capable units. Now the situation is completely different. Before that, the Armed Forces were simply in a sorry state financially. Both morally and financially. And, you know, in this connection, I would like to take the opportunity, as it were, and once again thank all our servicemen who at a very difficult time for the country, on their shoulders, in conditions where there was no money, and, I would say, when the Armed Forces were in a humiliating state, nevertheless saved the county. I bow before them.
[Sergey Ivanov] The famous 6th Company of the 76th Airborne Division, in 2000: about 100 of our paratroopers against 1,000-1,200 militants. Back then, there were militant groups of that size in Chechnya. They were fighting a losing battle.
[Lidiya Yevtyukhina, captioned as the mother of Hero of Russia Guards Lt-Col Mark Yevtyukhin] My son was the commander. And the guys who had heard all the communications said his last words were: I am drawing the fire upon myself, farewell, guys. The battle lasted nearly 24 hours and in the end out of the 90 or so young men, only six remained alive, and 84 were killed.
[Patrushev, over video, dated 14 Sep 01, of Putin laying flowers at Hill 776 in Chechnya] We decided, the president decided to visit that place. At the time, we had no control over that area. When the president set off, things were quiet. However, when he was leaving that hill, militants were already on their way there.
[Putin, speaking in 2001 at a meeting with relatives of servicemen killed in Chechnya] It is not your fault that the country has found itself in the situation it is now in. But we are fortunate to have people whom you raised, with whom you lived, who prevented the country's further disintegration. Somebody had to do it.
[Lidiya Yevtyukhina] After the 10th anniversary, I called everybody up, found all the addresses, found out all the problems they were having, who needed what and put it all in a folder that thick. Ten days later I got a telephone call: The folder has made it to Vladimir Vladimirovich, he would like to meet you. Every family was then visited by their local governor, who came to see them in person, to listen to their problems and resolve all the problems so that by the time of that meetings that we were scheduled to have with the president in Moscow, everything will have been done. You know, I think, it was about his attitude to parents who were left without their children. Our children all swore an oath. They knew what it could end in.
[Sergey Ivanov] I think, that famous battle was like a watershed in the Chechen campaign. Because, I think, after that battle the militants, the terrorists who were fighting against us realized that they would not be able to break the combat spirit and the will of our army.
[Shoygu] Today's army is, of course, far from what it was 15 years ago. Say, the president orders to conduct a snap inspection of the Eastern Military District and we raise 156,000 people in a matter of hours. These are thousands of armoured vehicles, hundreds of aircraft and ships. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of drills. In a nutshell: the projectile has been launched [Rus: snaryad poletel]. The army began feeling like an army. Officers began to respect themselves. Contract-based service has become attractive and prestigious. If there is no strong army, there may simply be no need for anything else. It will no longer be our country.
Happiness in serving one's country
[Solovyev, interviewing Putin] What are moments of utter happiness for you?
[Putin] Oh, I don't know. I could say what we've managed to achieve overall. And all that taken together could give me some satisfaction, when you realize where we were been and what we've done.
Let's start from the fact that we held the country together. And we saw GDP double. State spending in 2014 was 22 times that of 1999 and living standards have trebled in real terms. The number of people below the poverty threshold was nearly 42 million but it has shrunk by nearly three times, we now have 2.8 times fewer people below the poverty line.
All that taken together has allowed us to fulfil another very important task. In 1999 and in 2000 our population declined through natural causes by 929,000, nearly a million. A million more people died than were born. Losing a million a year would be disastrous for Russia. Russia would have gradually ceased to exist. We've not only stabilized the situation but reversed it and we've had natural population growth for two years in a row, which nobody believed could be possible. This is not just due to maternity capital and other child and maternity support measures. This is due to the overall situation. It creates greater confidence among people that they can bear and raise their children and so on. This is in fact a multiplier of what has been done.
Put all that together, when you think about it and analyse it all, and of course it is bound to bring me satisfaction.
[Passage omitted: a compilation of Russian media reports about a new sports facility built in a North Ossetian village; a new offshore drilling platform in Sakhalin; a new health centre in Moscow, a new hydropower plant on the Angara; a new university campus on Russkiy Island; a new gas facility in Yamal; Formula-1 race in Sochi.]
[Patriarch Kirill] The church has its own understanding of what those in power should be like. This understanding was set out not by my nearest predecessors or by me, it has been around throughout the whole of the history of the church. The church bounds the authorities, especially their most senior representatives, by a necessary requirement: to wholly devote themselves to serving the cause that they have been called to do. You can't say: this man works as a president. He serves his country as president. I think it says it all.
[Solovyev, interviewing Putin] Vladimir Vladimirovich, you have been president for 15 years. What does a person who becomes president have to give up?
[Putin, heaving a deep sigh] A normal everyday life. It is inevitable. You cannot lead a normal person's life. You cannot go to the movies, you cannot go to the theatre, you cannot go shopping, which too can be a meaningful and enjoyable thing to do. But those are small losses compared to what destiny and the people give to those who find themselves in my place. The latter gives one an opportunity to make a maximum contribution, to do everything in one's power, in our power, in the power of those who do this job, for one's country, for one's people. It makes up for everything.
[Video shows Putin shaking hands goodbye with Solovyev and leaving the hall where the interview was filmed.]
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#2 Moscow Times May 1, 2015 Putin Opens Up About Parents' World War II Experience [Putin's article with illustrations here http://ruspioner.ru/cool/m/single/4655] Russia's President Vladimir Putin has written a magazine column about his parents' struggles and hardships during World War II, but said they did not hate Nazi Germans - unlike his own generation that did. "There wasn't a family who didn't lose someone [during the war]. But they was no hatred toward the enemy, and that's what was amazing" Putin said of his parents in a column published Thursday in Russian Pioneer magazine. The Russian leader singled out his mother for particular praise, noting that she did not blame German soldiers for the war and told him: "They are the same working folks as us. They simply were forced to go to the front." In contrast, Putin's own generation "was brought up on Soviet books, films... And we hated [the enemy]]," he added in the column. Putin also recalled his father's injuries in the column, writing that "he lived all his life with [shrapnel] fragments in his leg, they could not remove them all." He also detailed the family's struggles to find food for Putin's older brother, who died of diphtheria during the war. The Russian leader enjoys a long-standing relationship with the Russian Pioneer magazine having published columns for them in previous years, TASS cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. The magazine is headed by Andrei Kolesnikov, a Kremlin pool reporter for the Kommersant business daily who has reported on the Russian president for years. |
#3 Russia Insider April 30 2015 The Vladimir Putin the West Doesn't Care to Know The President of Russia Vladimir Putin in his column for the magazine "Russian Pioneer" talks about his parents in the war, about his brother, about all the amazing coincidences of his life. By Phil Butler [Putin's article with illustrations here http://ruspioner.ru/cool/m/single/4655] In nine days all of Russia will celebrate, and further immortalize an historic victory for a homeland, and for the world. Whether or not any foreign leaders attend Victory Day celebrations in Red Square on May 9th, a great people have reason for unshakable pride. So too, it may come to pass that the leader of this dynamic nation will one day be remembered alongside the fallen heroes of Stalingrad and Leningrad. Here's a view of Vladimir Putin I'll bet not many out there know of or understand. We were scanning the news today when my partner Mihaela discovered a story about Vladimir Putin, and a column he wrote for the magazine "Russian Pioneer" (or Русский пионер in Russian). The article's title, translated for feeling reads, "Life Is Such a Simple Thing and Cruel", and it reflects not only Vladimir Putin's personal take on the Great Patriotic War, but interestingly, Russia's as well. In the piece Putin candidly discussed the coincidences that have informed his life. He goes on to confirm all the stories I and other writers have spoken of at times, of his family, his home, and the Nazi siege of Leningrad that took so many hundreds of thousands. Most striking though, is that the now celebrated leader is still confused that his parents never wanted to hate the enemy. In this resides perhaps the best quality of Russians, some miraculous capacity for forgiveness. And Putin speaks of it all reverently, in an almost childlike way, from a position of a "fly on the wall" listening to dark conversations of grownups. The effect is mesmerizing actually. Observing Putin from the standpoint of being his father's son, rather than TIME Magazine's most influential person, is riveting. It is not an easy essay to translate and deliver to you quickly, as our translation team is tied up with 50 other stories. So I solicited the help of our rocket scientist programmer, Aleksander Shatskih (Александр Шацких) to assist in conveying the feeling behind Mr. Putin's column. What's significant about the piece, other than the fact Russia's president has a column somewhere out there, is the harmony that Russia's leader feels in being Russian. Reading him speak of his mother, father, and brother with such clarity of recollection calls up sentiments I've expressed before. The Great War, the Siege of Leningrad, and Vladimir Putin's inextricable ties to the people and events of that time tell more about the man than a million biographies. He relates his father's part in the war, and later validation of the stories he was told. One in particular, of the senior Putin's narrow escape from Nazi patrols. Later in the monologue Putin relates a still more miraculous happenstance, when his father recalls a reunion with a comrade who saved his life during the war. The story Russia's leading citizen tells is rich with bridled emotion, controlled yet telling the truth of a city and its citizens left for dead, surrounded and nearly destroyed by an ultimately frustrated enemy. Just how disparaged the Nazis were is revealed by this recollection from Putin's father speaking about the blockade of Leningrad: "We ended up breaking through the blockade in another place, but there was bitter fighting around where we were, nonetheless. Bullets and shells flew relentlessly everywhere; the Germans realized a break was possible. So at Nevsky, they tried to level the spot to the ground. There's no telling how much metal still lies beneath each square meter of ground there." A friend informs me today, that not only is Nevsky still inundated with tons of bullet and shell fragments, but that human bone constitutes the soil along the streets there. For the reader unaware of what happened at Leningrad, suffice it to say that no American or British leader experienced such trials in that war. Nazi Germany had crushed everything in it's path, passing by what is now St. Petersburg to forage further East, killing anything that stood in the way. Somehow, miraculously the relentless pounding of German bombs and shelling killed fewer than the starvation and pestilence Russians suffered there. As for Putin's magazine article, his recollection of his the brother he never saw is the most touching memory or feeling. Vladimir's father, having been wounded, secreted his hospital rations to his starving wife and three year old child Viktor. The younger Putin, Vladimir's older brother, he fell ill with diphtheria and died. The cruelty of his death was exacerbated by the fact that his parents did not even know where he was buried. Vladimir Putin recollects how some kind souls later researched and reported the actual burial place of the Russian president's kin. If my recollection is correct, Putin said the grave is in Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery. At length a reader of Vladimir Putin's revelations can easily detect the man's desire to be heard, and for whoever reads his story in Russian to understand the events of those dark days. I think we can all identify somehow with a quest for truth and understanding when we see one. If I might venture my own translation here: "So you see, all my parents talked about of that war rang true. Not one word was invented. Not one single day has been moved. And as for my brother, and about the neighbors, even the story about the German commander who was a group comrade, all were proven true sometime after the fact." I find it somehow tragic that no other writers found this Putin article. Maybe journalists today just aren't paid enough. Or, perhaps their editors will not pay for a story about the real Vladimir Putin? I can only suppose about all that. What's tragic is not that Vladimir Putin is not better understood, but that the honorable and courageous people he leads today are not. In the end Russia sacrificed the most so the Allies could be victorious, but no one sees this who does not want to. Even amid all the undue criticism though, the intelligent humanity of Russia is visible, in her president. I leave you with another fragment, as he speaks of his departed mother: "There was not a family where someone was not killed, and of course, grief, trouble, tragedy struck all. That they had no hatred for the enemy, that's what I find amazing. I cannot to this day, frankly, understand their goodness. My mother, she was so very gentle, so kind.... And she told me, 'Why should we hate those soldiers? They are simple people too, and we also killed them in the war.' It's utterly amazing. We were brought up with Soviet books, and movies... And there was hated. But in my mother this somehow did not exist. Her words I'll always remember: 'What can we do? They are just as hardworking as we are. They were just driven to the front to fight.'" It's time the world's people understand who is driving us to the front today. As for Russia and Putin, the "front" is in the same place as always. It's called home. |
#4 Fort Russ http://fortruss.blogspot.com April 30, 2015 Vladimir Putin's Life Rules. Putin's first TV interview in 1991 and a follow up in 2002 (Part 1) [Video here http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/04/vladimir-putins-life-rules-putins-first.html] TV Channel "24 Doc" Igor Shadkhan (director) Translated from Russian by Kristina Rus Evening Conversation Recorded in 2002 Igor Shadkhan: You know it all started when I went to a meeting with Vladimir Vladimirovich. It was not my idea to film him, it was his idea. I was greeted by a young man, Igor Sechin, who was very happy to see me. Q: Why did he want to meet you? There was a series on "Russian Video" channel, called "Power," when it was a Sobchak channel, were Sobchak's team was presented. No one else wanted me to film them. There was Gref and Kudrin, and many others. But Putin wanted me to film him. I asked, why do you want me to film you? He said, "Because I saw your program "A test for grown-ups"." In this first interview he talks about himself as a former agent of the KGB. Q: After the interview, did you meet Putin again with a camera in 10 years? With a camera, yes Q: Who was the initiator? It was me Q: Where was it filmed? It was filmed in Sochi at Putin's residence "Bocahrov Ruchei" Q: So what happened with him in 10 years? The concept was the following, first time I filmed him when he was very young, 40 years old. I wanted to check if he retained his convictions from 10 years ago regarding the Gulag, Stalin, his personal values. This was the idea. But of course he had changed, just like he changed over the following 10 years. But at the same time his simplicity, his eagerness to talk with me, his eyes - were very disarming. Q: When did you see him last? In June Q: Was it a private meeting? It was a one on one meeting. I was very concerned about education issues, which always concern me. Q: You said that Putin appeals to you. Does he appeal to you as a human being or as a politician? He appeals to me, because I feel my own responsibility for him. He appeals to me on a human level. I worry and care about him. I don't approve of all of his actions, and I am ready to argue with him. But I can't believe that this person, whom I met in my life is as horrible, as is portrayed by many today. Putin [about Bolotnaya]: "What can you say in this case? You can say "Come to me, banderlogi! (laughs)" Q: This person called the people who came out on Bolotnaya square "banderlogi" I think it was simply a bad choice of a reference. He simply said that he likes "Maugli" and in that story there are such characters as "banderlogi"... Q: 10 years has passed. Is it time for another episode? Of course [Other clips cited in the video up to this point will be repeated below in the interview] -- Putin: Everything is dedicated to work. The entire day is arranged in a way that the time dedicated to work is used most efficiently. Q: For most Russians as far as I know Mondays are difficult, what about you? For me every day is a Monday (laughs) Q: Are you an early or a late riser? You know it depends on the circumstances. It's not easy, but I often have to move through different time zones, so when necessary I have to rise early, and sometimes late. Q: Tea? Tea YQ: ou don't drink coffee at all, right? No, but I could have some. I can drink anything. Q: Green? Yes, green Q: You will like it Q: Thank you very much, Vladimir Vladimirovich Q: You know, I would like to explain to our viewers how we met. May be you will recall how we met. It was 1991, I came from Norilsk, where I filmed a big movie about Norilsk Gulag for 4 months I just went there recently... Q: In Norilsk? Norilsk, those places... Q: The prison? Yes Q: Horror More then horror Q: Very terrifying Hard to imagine Q: I came and I was told that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin wants to meet with you. And you may excuse me, but I asked, who is Putin? At that time Sobchak's government was forming, and I simply didn't know anyone. And I went to Smolny. Before that I have been there once in my life in Soviet times. When I came into the reception, I was shocked by this atmosphere. There was a huge number of people, speaking Russian, foreign languages. To be honest, after Norilsk, after all of those emotions during filming, I decided that I am going to say "no". When I came into your office, I asked, "Vladimir Vladimirovich, why did you choose me?" And you gave me a long look and said, "Because I watched your program "A test from grown-ups." And in a few days, in 1991, your first TV interview was filmed. Was it your first TV interview? Yes, first Q: Today we will watch parts of it. You, 11 years ago: 1991, Interview with Deputy Mayor of Saint Petersburg, Vladimir Putin: How old are you? 39 Do you have a family? Yes, I have a family, two children, two girls, 5 and 6 years old What is your education? I am a lawyer, graduated from Leningrad State University in 1975 What is your specialty in the legal field? I wrote a paper "Principles most conducive for trade" and I researched problems of international personal law What is your zodiac sign? I believe it's libra It fits your position We'll see... Q: Interesting ... Libra looks for balance, does that explain that there is no rush to fire top bureaucrats or is it something else, your patience? It's impossible that you are content with the work of the government. Of course, in this regard, sometimes one wants to make some sudden moves. But I am absolutely convinced that it will only bring more harm. The more changes, the fewer chances for success. Although, of course, staff decisions have to be made, they are made, but without a rush. 1991: Putin: Anatoly Alexandrovich just told me that we had purchased 2.5 tons of sugar in Ukraine to be shipped to Saint-Petersburg Are we getting out of the woods? We should not say it's over till it's over It was a very difficult time. All economic ties of former USSR collapsed. Nothing functioned. The city of 5 million was on the verge of a catastrophe. We had to open strategic canned goods reserves. The situation was very worrisome and very serious. But luckily we avoided any big consequences ... We came out of that difficult situation. Q: You mentioned Anatoly Alexandrovych ... I always had great interest and great respect for him. Of course, he was a very complex and bright person. I am sure he had made mistakes, in some ways he was not precise and contradictory. But what's most important, in my opinion, is that he was very passionate and a very decent person. Q: Why is decency so important to you? Because it is one of the most important traits based on which one can do business with people. If you take the example of Anatoly Alexandrovich, one could rely on his values and priorities, and it was absolutely clear that he will always follow his priorities, no matter what. He was fearless in this regard. Q: Excuse me for the next question, but are you surrounded by decent people, meaning your close circle? It may seem strange, but for the most part in my life, my fate, I was surrounded by people, dealing with whom enriched my life and brought me joy. I may remember some exceptions, if I really try, but overall I was lucky to be surrounded by honest, decent people. I should not complain for my fate, I am content. 1991 Do you often have internal contradictions? No. Of course, sometimes there are occasions. But overall I don't experience any internal struggles, indecision and worries. I think I am a pretty balanced person, but of course, now I have to think about and make decisions, which are not so simple. What would you like to ask? (laughs) I can only repeat today, do you have any contradictions within yourself? Q: I can only repeat what I said 11 years ago. Of course now I have to make even more difficult decisions. But that does not cause any internal conflicts. I am deeply convinced that before making a decision one must think very hard. And I will never make any difficult decisions which may affect the lives of other people, unless I am absolutely convinced that this decision is correct, and often when it is impossible to solve a problem otherwise. In the first episode you asked about my education. I will remind you that my base education is legal. And I believe that one must act within the framework of the law and not for some revolutionary feasibility, then it will be easier to make decisions without any internal contradictions. Q: Don't you get inspired? Inspiration, just as intuition, is only born on the basis of knowlege. Q: I understand that Russia today is a young country, right? After the changes of the early 90's little time has passed. But Russia has a thousand year history and everything accumulated over time. All of it is our historic intellectual legacy. Q: All these transitions from one system to another were very difficult, what is more difficult - domestic or foreign policy? One cannot exist without the other. Foreign and domestic policy are inextricably tied. But foreign policy in any case is a derivative from domestic. And in this sense, domestic policy is more important, it is a basis of life of the state. In my opinion, domestic policy is much more interesting, because it is multi-faceted. And in our country, such complex multi-national country, with a very complex structure, federated country, with a thousand year history, (as we just learned) and at the same time - very young, going through a process of building key state institutions, domestic policy is much more rich and interesting, at least for me. |
#5 Fort Russ http://fortruss.blogspot.com April 30, 2015 Vladimir Putin's first TV interview in 1991 and a follow up in 2002 (Part 2) [Video here http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/04/vladimir-putins-first-tv-interview-in.html] 24 Doc TV channel Igor Shadkhan (filmmaker) Translated from Russian by Kristina Rus Recorded in 2002 (1991) Vladimir Putin, Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg: As far as my attitude towards the representatives of the middle class, I would say the following. Just a year ago I used to pay attention to the behavior of the representatives of the middle class. Many of them used to be very unsure of themselves. I would even say, subservient. But today their attitude towards themselves, society, the authorities is changing. Without exaggeration I can say that people are beginning to gain self-esteem, confidence in tomorrow. I think that this middle class as in any civilized country must become, will become the basis for the flourishing of our society overall. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia: Here I am only worried about one thing. Today I am extremely worried about the material segregation of society. As opposed to other developed countries we have a large number of the poor. And the resources which are accumulated in certain hands belong to a limited number of people. And this difference between low-income layers and those people who can boast about their millions and billions is unacceptable. The solution is of course is in the development of this middle class, which we talked about 11 years ago. At the same time we must be very careful, and not rush ahead. I know that what I am saying right now might cause a disapproval from my liberal colleagues. They are a type of "revolutionaries" and "Bolsheviks", only from the opposite side. I think we have made many mistakes, and we must learn the lessons. I will tell you why. What was done in the beginning of he 1990's in principle was right, they created the base, but some decisions were so harsh and so painfully reflected on ordinary citizens, that the leadership of the country for the most part had lost the trust of ordinary citizens, and was forced for many years to just stumble in one place. Nothing could be approved in the parliament. Overall it was very costly for reform policies, because the resource of trust into authorities has been spent in the first years. And this was a mistake We must act decisively along the line of market reforms, but very carefully, with minimal, and better - without any loss for ordinary citizens. Q: Is this possible? This is the art of domestic politics which we had talked about. This is why I told you it's most interesting - to find a golden middle, the balance, between moving ahead, but not forgetting about the home base. Not to forget that all these reforms are done not for some aliens, but for our ordinary citizens. And they must feel that something is changing for the better, otherwise it's all senseless. Q: The biggest hardship in these past 10 years was experienced by the older generation This time was not only difficult for the older generation, it was cruel towards the older generation. Of course people were not prepared for such moral, physical and material trials. In the Soviet times people assembled their modest nest egg by kopecks, if you can call it that. And as a result of reforms of the early 1990's they lost even that much. And to get back on their feet is practically impossible for many people. They gave their whole life, their health to their work and their country. You were asking about my parents, they were very ordinary, not just from the working class, they were the working class themselves, for their entire life. Q: What did your mother do for work? She didn't have a profession, she did many side jobs. She didn't even finish high school. Q: And your dad? My father had technical education, he was a mechanic at a plant, part of "working intelligentsia", I would say. They lived very modestly. Even when I received a top position in Moscow, they lived very very modestly in St. Petersburg. Q: How did they feel about your career? They were proud, of course. But why am I talking about it - it's not so much a feeling of guilt before the older generation, which I always feel, but I can't even find the right word, not a feeling of guilt, but a sense of duty before them. Perhaps this is related to the memories about my parents, because although we lived very modestly, I had the most important thing, as I estimate it today. I was surrounded with my parents' love, they loved me, I knew it, I felt it. Therefore I think that the state must do everything possible for the older generation. (1991) - You say, you are a bureaucrat, are you trying to rehabilitate the meaning of this term? - No, I use this term in order to emphasize that I am not a politician. I am just an employee of an administrative apparatus. And I would hope that people here would simply do their professional job without thinking about politics. Although this is difficult, but nevertheless... This is first, secondly many things are getting back to their basics today, loosing their crust accumulated over decades. There is nothing wrong with bureaucrats, I used to be a military bureaucrat, and now became a civil bureaucrat, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Q: Is president a bureaucrat? A contractor. Made a contract with society for 4 years. [Laughter] Q: Does the president have more work or more power? Would you like some more tea? [Laughter] Before you push me into a corner, I have to sweeten you with something. I think that for some people, no matter what they do, there is never enough power, just as money. The issue is how to allocate those resources, which you have available, in order to achieve maximum result. Of course a standard set of authority levers is necessary in order to solve those problems facing a certain government structure. I think that the head of the Russian state has sufficient authority. Q: Does your relationship with your dog confirm the saying that a dog is a man's friend? I have such a friend. I think not every dog, and not every person, but I have such mutual understanding and love. (1991) - No matter how sad and how awful it may sound, I think in our country a turn towards totalitarianism is possible for some period of time. But the danger may come not from law enforcement, security agencies or even the army, the danger is in the mentality of ourselves, our people, our population. We all think, and I must say, even I think sometimes, that if one would bring strict order with a strong hand, life would become more comfortable and safe. But in reality, this comfort will fast pass, because this strong hand will start choking us very soon. And we will feel it immediately on ourselves and members of our families. Only in a democratic system, when law enforcement officers, no matter how we call them, (KGB, MVD, NKVD) know that if tomorrow or next year a change of power may occur in a country, in a region or a city, they will be asked: "How did you follow the laws of your country? What have you done with the citizens over whom you have authority"? I have nothing to add Q: So this point of view remains? Absolutely nothing to add, feels like this was yesterday, not 11 years ago Q: You were born in 1952, Stalin was still alive But I don't remember him. [Laughter] Q: I understand that you don't remember him, but I remember him well, I was 13 years old. Here is my question, do we live in a different country today? Of course Q: The same Russia, but different? First of all it shrank, unfortunately, in its economic capabilities, its population and territory. But I think this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is the intellectual contents and condition of the nation, of society. And today it is such, that despite a desire for order and discipline, the internal denial of tyranny is so strong in the mentality of majority of population, that it allows us to say, that we live in a different country. (1991) - You know, Vladimir Vladimirovich, just yesterday on that shelf behind me, I saw a Lenin's statue in your cabinet, and I wanted to ask you a question, I understand that this statue was left from the old owner of this cabinet, since you moved here only recently, and I wanted to ask, why did you keep it. In the morning it was still here. But now it is gone. What happened? - I can not tell you what happened , one of my assistants must have done this. Where it went, I couldn't know. But earlier there were portraits of the founder of USSR, Vladimir Lenin, they were taken down. But I must tell you, that I have a very calm attitude towards these portraits and statues. I believe that one should treat history as something that happened, and it cannot be taken out of our history. If you would like know about my attitude towards this person, towards his ideology, I must tell you that there was a time in my life when I was very interested in Marxism and Leninism, read a lot about it, found it interesting and often logical... - Like all of us - Yes, like all of us - But as I matured, the truth became more and more apparent to me, that all of that was no more then a beautiful but dangerous fairy tale, dangerous because an attempt of its implementation in our country caused a lot of harm. And I would like to talk about the tragedy, which we are experiencing today, the tragedy of disintegration of our state, which you cannot call anything else but tragedy. I think that the actors of October 1917 put a time bomb under the foundation of this building, the building of a unitary state called Russia. They broke our fatherland into separate princedoms, which never existed of the map of the world. Gave them parliaments and governments, and now we have what we have. On the other hand they destroyed what glues, molds the people of civilized countries - market relationships. They destroyed the market, emerging capitalism. The only thing that they did to keep the country together within common borders - was a barb wire. As soon as the barb wire was removed, the country fell apart. And I think that this is the fault of these people, whether they wanted to or not, I think they didn't want to, but objectively, this is the role they played. What is the question? (smiling) Q: You know there were many talks that you came from nowhere. I think I was lucky that I filmed this episode with you in 1991. I think that 11 years ago you had principles, which you have retained to this day, am I right? Just like in the previous episode, I practically have nothing to add, I am ready to repeat every word, you are right. Q: Ok, you know, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I remember your flight on a fighter jet, Mig or Su. You were flying, and I thought it was like a metaphor, meaning that reforms will go faster, did I make it up? There was no metaphor. It had nothing to do with reforms. It was not even a pre-election trick, which was talked much about in the media. There was only one reason, and it's no secret, I flew in an airplane for safety reasons. I was flying to Chechnya, and we landed in Grozny airport. Q: St. Petersburg University, you and George Bush Jr., the President of the United Stets of America answered a student question: "what qualities one must have to become president". Bush answered first, and talked for a long time about intellectual superiority, to be ahead in the ratings, and then you answered: To be successful in any business you must have at least two qualities: a sense of responsibility and a sense of love. I am deeply convinced that without love for your country and your people one should not even come close to presidency or even a lower level of management, related to working with people. Without love for your own country one not only should stay away from this activity, but not even come close. But just love is not sufficient. One needs to be prepared for intense work, for making decisions on which much is dependent, professionalism. All of this I call - "responsibility". I think without these two qualities it is impossible to be not only a head of state, but even a head of a municipality. As far as the answer of the president of the United Sates, I also agree with him, he is quite a sincere and appealing person. Part 3 coming soon ... |
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