Who is Vladimir Putin? Well, it’s not that easy

Mike Yefimkin , a journalist from Smolensk, Russia, spent two weeks at the News & Record as part of an international exchange program.

Reading the American press, I’ve seen mostly an opposite view of President Vladimir Putin from what we have in Russia. The question, “Who are you, Mister Putin?” cannot be precisely answered from only one point of view. Like any living person, Putin is a very contradictory man. But let’s look at him through Russian eyes.

Macho man

In Russian state-owned or popular media, Putin is usually shown as a total macho man. You may remember seeing him bare-chested riding a horse or fishing or diving into the sea to find ancient items. In other sources he’s depicted riding a bear or something like that, which are fake but very funny.

Opposition media constantly criticize him. But there are so few of them that they can hardly compete.

Big boss

Very often Putin is depicted as a wise and caring leader of a big nation, though many doubt it. He is a great debater and very often answers the most provocative questions with a good sense of humor. He is very reserved in public and doesn’t show his emotions.

Putin is considered a tough leader. He has a black belt in judo. People respect him, as the weak usually respect the strong. His visits to the regions of Russia are always a big stress for local officials. They tend to try to hide existing problems when “big men from Moscow” come to inspect. It’s quite natural in Russia and sometimes leads to funny situations.

Keeping fit

It’s widely known that every morning when he’s in Moscow, Putin works out in his gym and swims several miles in the pool. When a TV program was made for his 60th birthday, they showed the president eating only healthy food.

Must love dogs

Putin loves dogs. His black Labrador Connie is one of the most famous canines in Russia. From time to time, Putin gives the puppies to different people. That’s why there is one in my hometown of Smolensk. Putin gave it as a present to a small girl. Now the girl is at the university and the dog still lives in the family. The only problem is the head of the family is not really happy about all the journalists’ interest in the dog every year.

Believer

Despite his KGB officer past, Putin often goes to church. During big Orthodox holidays he can be seen dressed in jeans and a sweater in some small, remote churches far from Moscow.

New-era style

Putin is very much unlike the Soviet leaders of the past — much more liberal and fit. He’s also very flexible; he can talk to a variety of political powers. Actually, we can see around him a consolidation of different political powers that are considered opponents in Russia (liberal democrats, communists and social democrats).

But all of these are, as you might say, old-school politicians. Now there are some new politicians who disagree with Putin but they are more like protesters than full-time politicians. I suppose the future will show if they can develop into politicians.

Steady development

Putin has been ruling Russia since 2000. During some of this era Dmitry Medvedev was the president and Putin was the prime minister, but we still know these years as “Putin Time.”

And despite all of our current problems, we consider these 14 years to be the best years of our lives. We’ve had stable salary growth. Many people got the opportunity to buy cars and take loans to buy their own apartments. People actually began traveling. Before 2000, it was absolutely incredible for a middle-class Russian to go on holiday somewhere like Egypt, Turkey, Thailand or one of the countries in the European Union. They might be far from the U.S., but they are only a three-hour flight from Moscow.

Likes and dislikes

There are two major opinions about Putin’s rule in Russia. Many young people with liberal views consider him a tyrant who suppresses many freedoms and won’t let people act freely.

Older people say he is stable and they like his steady course. It’s more common to criticize Putin in Moscow than in the regions that usually try to keep to fulfilling his orders (as far as I understand here in Greensboro people like to protest if they get too many orders from the state).

I will not address international relations in this text because there’s nothing more miserable then a local reporter trying to create an impression that he’s involved in something more than his own local questions.

Actually it’s very challenging to write about Putin because he is not something that happens to you every day. If you are not Moscow-based you’re sure not to meet him very often. Russia is incredibly big and consists of 85 federal subjects. So he’s unlikely to visit each region very often.

That means the question, “Who are you, Mr. Putin?” remains for you to decide.

Contact Mike Yefimkin at mishanyabear@mail.ru.