Warning: this is a 25min long speech followed by over two hours of questions and answers. Still, I would suggest that is is well worth watching because I believe that it really shows the kind of man Putin is and what really makes him “tick”. If you want to have a really good insight into what the “Eurasian sovereignists” stand for and the kind of international order they are trying to promote – get it directly from primary source: Putin himself. His answers are all non-scripted, the questions non-rehearsed and all the topics are discussed in an extremely candid manner. I highly recommend listening to the full thing.
Cheers,
The Saker
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Saker Message:
Any transcript available?
Mindfriedo
Hey Saker,
How are you my friend? is this the interview where President Putin said that if Berlusconi happen to be homosexual he will not be put in jail or even being accused for corruption? his counterpart the italian president I think was just laughing all loud because of putin’s statement..I also laughed and I personally think that Putin is showing a good personality and is being a great opponent to the USA imperialism despite of course being another just business as usual person…regards
@Anonymous1:Any transcript available
I found this for his speech http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/6007 but nothing for the Q&A. Sorry. HTH. Cheers!
@Anonymous2:despite of course being another just business as usual person
I will tell you honestly that while there are many things about Putin which I don’t like (he is the product of the Soviet era which I hated), I consider him as much more than just a “business as usual person. IMHO he is an absolutely formidable statesman, with a strong and sincere belief in his views or he simply would not have been able to achieve all he has achieved. I think that he is a genuine patriot as he understands this concept (not my concept at all, I would add), and I think that what he as achieved in a short time and absolutely horrendous consequences will go down in history as one of the most amazing “country resuscitation” ever made. So in my opinion, not only is he not business as usual, he is an amazing and awe-inspiring statesman.
That is, however, my highly SUBJECTIVE opinion, of course.
Cheers,
The Saker
@saker
Thank you for the text link. I have gone through the speech and am about half way through the Q&A. I got the impression that Putin has the virtue of the vicious. But as President of All the Rus that is expected or required of him.
I had a Ukranian customer at my shop. A young girl studying film making. I started asking her about Putin, about that lady premier Yulia Tymoshenko and about what she thought of Ukraine wanting to join the EU.
She thought Putin was a tyrant and she said things were better in 2004. She said that now there was no growth and things were stagnating. I had just read Bhadrakumar’s article and asked her was it not better to look east. But she said “no way, we’ll be better off with the EU.”
I got these kind of responses in Iran too. Back then the Iranians were paying a few cents a gallon for fuel and they still hated their government and loved the West. Took me back in time a bit.
Thanks
Mindfriedo