Impressions of an American journalist from the Kremlin and acquaintance with Putin

Фото: Depositphotos

In February 2017, journalist David Tang came to Russia to meet with the president of this country, Vladimir Putin.

He got there thanks to his friend, director Oliver Stone, who persuaded the Russian president to allow him to follow him for several months and record a great interview with him that is being broadcast to the USA.

Tang told about his experience with the head of Russia in an article for CNBC.

We provide an abridged translation of its text.

We arrived at 20: 00 to what seemed like the smallest door in the Kremlin. One lamp dimly lit an inconspicuous entrance. There was no stairs. Instead, a set of narrow spiral steps led us to a long corridor. We were invited to a brightly lit room with an imitation of Versailles furniture, equipped with a four-meter-long bar, in which there were all imaginary drinks, they were carried by two obese waiter in tight-fitting black suits. Nearby there were two large rooms, at the end of which there were two huge decorative armchairs facing each other.

We waited for the appointed hour all day, and now when it arrived, it didn’t matter that, to our dismay, our meeting place was devoid of any KGB atmosphere: no sinister signs, no intrigue, no sense of tension.

Then we heard footsteps. The President, shorter than I expected and even more unexpectedly - with a slight belly, entered the room with one interpreter and one security guard, who immediately retreated to the corner. Stone shook Putin's hand, they ignored me.

Stone and Putin sat down and the interview began.

Stone asked if Russia and Putin intervened in the US elections and helped trump to win? Putin scornfully rejected this idea.

“But what about the CIA report that there is a lot of evidence of Russian interference?” Stone insisted. Putin sharply reminded him of CIA "intelligence" data about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be completely wrong. Stone asked if Putin had read the CIA report on the US elections? Putin answered in the affirmative - all 200-odd pages. And he cited the report's conclusion that interference was "highly likely" but not certain. Stone couldn't catch Putin on the details.

After more than an hour of conversation, they took a break. This was the moment I was waiting for: I was finally introduced and shook hands. It was a firm handshake. I looked at his face: hard and angular, but no discernable features of a tyrant and scars.

I told him that I was Chinese and lived in Hong Kong. He was not in Hong Kong, but he likes the Chinese, he said. I expected him to mention Chinese President Xi Jinping, but instead he said that he liked Chinese food and fashion. He admitted that he preferred spicy Chinese food. He also proudly admitted to me that he has two Chinese jackets, one of which, his favorite, is dark blue.

The break was over, and a serious discussion resumed: Chechnya, Ukraine, Crimea, Afghanistan, Syria, the USA and the world order. Every answer Putin gave was deliberate and extensive. He had no one to communicate with anymore. His press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, was present at the meeting for a while, but did not intervene.

The second part of the interview lasted two hours, but Putin turned out to be quite resilient. I was completely exhausted, just silent and listened. There were no distractions, no vaulted ceilings with eerie lighting, no tables littered with ominous files that read "Top Secret."

It was 2 in the morning. The meeting came to an end.

We all got up, I felt as if I was on the set. And I was there. Except that the main character was not a movie star, but a real person who denied that he had real money; tough person who rarely smiled.

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