Obama's memoirs: what the 44th US president thinks of Putin and other world leaders

On November 17, the memoirs of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, entitled "Promised Land" were published. What President Obama wrote about the leaders of other countries in his book, the publication said with the BBC.

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In the first 890 hours, the book sold 000 copies in the US and Canada alone—a record for the Penguin Random House publishing house. The 44th president's revelations are expected to become the best-selling presidential memoirs in history.

In his book, Obama talks not only about American politics and problems in his own family life. A significant part of his memoirs is devoted to his trips abroad, and, naturally, meetings with world leaders.

Who impressed him, and what kind?

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Obama visited Russia for the first time as President in the summer of 2009. Before the visit, the head of the White House was advised by an employee of the US National Security Council, Michael McFaul, who later took over as ambassador to Moscow.

Dmitry Medvedev was then Russian President, who impressed Obama as a "modern politician" interested in establishing good relations with the United States. According to the memoirs, McFaul warned Obama in advance that Medvedev was indeed trying to prove his "serious role on the world stage."

“Don’t forget that Putin still makes decisions,” the presidential adviser said.

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This was confirmed at the very first meeting of Dmitry Medvedev with an American guest. At that time, one of the main problems in bilateral relations was the "three-day war" with Georgia. Obama recalls that as soon as the conversation started about this, Medvedev, "as if he was being kept on a leash," repeated all the arguments of the official Russian authorities. But when it came to other matters, he clearly relaxed and enjoyed the conversation.

“It was as if he was trying to show me that he himself didn’t believe a word he said,” writes Barack Obama.

After that, the American guest met in Novo-Ogaryovo with Vladimir Putin, who was then prime minister.

Obama was received on the veranda of the residence, where the table was "richly laid", and as a Russian exoticism there was a man in a blouse who was blowing a samovar with his boot.

Obama said the Russian leader reminded him of people he encountered in Chicago when he first entered politics - "kind of like the neighborhood boss, but with nuclear weapons and a veto on the UN Security Council."

“Putin reminded me of the type of men who once ran Chicago politics or Timmany Hall [a political society of the Democratic Party that operated in New York in the 19th and until the mid-20th centuries, regulating the nomination of candidates, etc.] - street-bred, tough, unsentimental types; narrow-minded people who never looked beyond their limited experience and regarded roofing, bribes, blackmail, deceit and occasional violence as legitimate methods of their activities,” Obama writes.

The Chicago political "machine" in the United States has long been a symbol of corruption.

As the former head of the White House recalls, the Russian leader at the very beginning of the conversation preferred to state in detail all his claims against the United States.

“I barely had time to finish my question when Putin launched into what seemed like an endless monologue,” Obama states in his memoirs. “He listed in detail all the cases of imaginary injustice and disrespect towards Russians on the part of the Americans. I recalled that it was he who called President Bush on September 11th offering to provide intelligence data.”

The Russian leader, among other things, mentioned that he helped the United States to persuade the authorities of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to place American military bases in these countries. As Obama recalls, Putin emphasized that Bush did not "heed his warnings" and that his invasion of Iraq "destabilized the Middle East."

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In his monologue, Putin also referred to the expansion of NATO and the "color revolutions" that were organized in the United States in the "Russian sphere of influence" and Washington's attempts to "dominate the world."

In addition, according to Putin, the United States does not see Russia as an "equal partner", so in these conditions it is difficult to hope for an improvement in bilateral relations.

Obama claims that Putin's lively monologue lasted exactly 45 minutes. After that, the American leader tried to give a detailed answer to all the complaints he made, but he got the impression that the Russian prime minister was not interested in these explanations. At least Putin didn’t listen to his guest very carefully.

David Cameron

Eaton's pupil, leader of the Conservative Party, who served as Prime Minister of Britain from 2010 to 2016, appeared before Obama "with exquisite manners and self-confidence," he possessed "the calm confidence of a man who has never really been ruffled by life."

Obama admits that he had sympathy for him ("I personally liked him, even when our heads collided"), but makes no secret of the fact that he did not agree with the British leader about his economic policy.

“Cameron was completely committed to traditional free market policies. He promised his voters that his policy platform of cutting the deficit and cutting public sector spending, along with regulatory reform and expanding trade, would usher in a new era of British competitiveness, writes the 44th US president. “Instead, predictably, the British economy fell into an even deeper recession.”

Nicolas Sarkozy

The former French president was full of "emotional outbursts and rhetoric", he reminded Obama of "a character from a painting of Toulouse-Lautrec."

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“The conversations with Sarkozy were both interesting and exhausting; his hands were constantly in motion, his chest heaved like a bantam rooster, his personal interpreter, always nearby, desperately tried to repeat his every gesture and intonation as the conversation alternated between flattery, threats, but never strayed from the original, his poorly hidden benefit, which should be the center of all these actions and which can be taken credit for - whatever this benefit turns out to be.”

Angela Merkel

The German chancellor, according to Obama, is “reliable, honest, with a ruthless intellect and kind by nature.”

Obama, however, notes that Merkel initially viewed him with a fair amount of skepticism. Mainly because of his pompous speeches and ability to speak in front of an audience. By the way, the 44th President Obama is really proud of his oratorical abilities.

“I was not offended when I thought that for the leader of Germany, disgust at all kinds of demagoguery is actually a healthy reaction,” admits the author of the memoirs.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The Turkish leader was "friendly" to Obama and "generally, sensitive to requests," the author of the memoirs admits.

However, "I have a clear impression that his interest in preserving democracy and the rule of law can only exist if it preserves his own power," Obama said.

Manmohan Singh

The former Prime Minister of India has been described as a "wise, thoughtful and impeccably honest" politician as well as the "chief architect of India's economic transformation."

Singh is "an unassuming technocrat who won the people's trust not by appealing to their sentiments, but by bringing a higher standard of living and maintaining a well-deserved reputation as an honest, uncorrupt politician," Obama concludes.

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Vaclav Klaus

Obama never hid the fact that he was a fan of Vaclav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution. His successor, Vaclav Klaus, is described by the former head of the White House as “problematic” in his memoirs.

Obama feared that this Eurosceptic president would spearhead a resurgence of right-wing populism in Europe. Klaus, he said, was a prime example of "how the global economic crisis [2008-2009] has led to an increase in nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment and skepticism about [European] integration."

“The promising wave of democratization, liberalization and integration that swept the entire world at the end of the so-called Cold War has begun to subside,” sums up the 44th President of the United States.

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