Putin: “No to the force, I believe in democracy Mount a suicide bomber for the good of Italy”

NOVO-OGAREVO (MOSCOW) – The third candidate for the presidency of Russia, plus a prime ministerial mandate? “Perfectly normal, I go through the elections, people decide”. Electoral fraud? “I don’t know, but there are the courts for this”. The square in protest that denounces “United Russia” as a party of criminals? “Pure electoral slogans, beaten by rallies”. Vladimir Putin answers questions about problems of democracy in Russia for two and a half hours.

He presents his program for the six-year presidency if he is elected on Sunday, he resolves the doubts and once again Dmitrij Medvedev is re-elected as premier, he commits himself not to use the iron fist with the opposition and he faces the big issues open in foreign policy : Syria (“We want to prevent what happened in Libya, with that medieval execution of Gaddafi”), Iran (“It has the right to have its civil nuclear program, under international control”), the United States (“When I met Obama in this same room, I recognized his ideas”).

Finally, Italy: “Monti is a suicide bomber, he is doing everything very well, Silvio Berlusconi told me yesterday, of which I continue to be a great friend”.

There are more policemen here than in central Moscow, even in the Kremlin area. We leave the Rubliovka (once surrounded only by dachas of wood and birch, while now the old houses are next to Ferrari and Maserati windows, the Luxury Village, even a Billionaire) and we turn right into a silent and empty street with access ban on the top, in the middle of a forest full of snow. At the bottom a large white wall surmounted by the imperial eagle of Russia.

When the giant iron gate opens, you enter the forbidden area of ​​Novo-Ogarevo, the district of the new Russian power. On the right in the park is the house where Putin lives, invisible to all. On the left the helicopter landing pad. In front, now, another gate with camouflage guard soldiers. And here is the dacha where Putin has been honoring Heads of State and Government for twelve years and receiving his official guests. A large yellow building in Muscovite style turned to classic, with white columns under a small curved terrace.

On the first floor, the dining room where during the dinner an interview was held with the directors of some of the major international newspapers: James Harding of the Times, Gabor Steingart of Handelsblatt, John Stackhouse of the Globe and Mail, Yoshibumi Wakamiya of Asahi Shimbun, Sylvie Kauffmann editorial director of Le Monde, and Republic. Here is the text of the interview.

(02 March 2012)