Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has lauded himself as Russia’s hardest-working leader since World War II, putting himself above communist-era titans like Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev in his first lengthy interview since announcing he would return to the presidency next year.
The nationally televised display of bravado on Monday was remarkable even for a man known for his extreme self-confidence, obsession with his public image and virtually unquestioned control over Russia’s most important institutions.
Putin announced last month he would run for a third term as president in elections in March next year, and his victory is seen as a certainty. He told the heads of Russia’s three national television channels the Soviet Union-era leaders were not physically capable and willing to run the country the way he does.
Photo: AFP
“I can’t recall Soviet leadership after World War II who worked as hard,” the former KGB colonel said. “They did not know what to do because of their physical capabilities or misunderstandings.”
The channel heads took turns asking Putin a series of polite questions that ranged from deferential to obsequious. One of them compared Putin to a hawk — to which the prime minister replied with a condescending smile.
“A hawk is a good birdie,” Putin said. “But I am against any cliches.”
None of the interviews questioned Putin’s favorable comparison of himself to the Soviet Union’s post-World Wwar II leaders.
Those leaders include Stalin, who turned most of Eastern Europe into a communist bloc; Khrushchev, who provoked the Caribbean missile crisis, sent the first man in space and banged his shoe on the table in the UN promising to “bury” the Western world; and Mikhail Gorbachev, who started perestroika and the democratic changes that led — against his will — to the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Putin accused his Soviet predecessors of making people feel unsafe and monopolizing ideological and economic power in ways that led to the collapse.
During his two terms between 2000 and 2008, Putin cultivated the image of a macho leader who can pilot fighter jets, ride a horse bare-chested and pet Siberian tigers.
Putin compared himself to former US president Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected four times in the times of the Great Depression and World War II.
Roosevelt “acted effectively and the number of terms or the years he spent in power did not matter,” Putin said. “What does it mean? It means that when a country is in complicated, difficult conditions, on its way from a crisis, back to its feet, stability in politics is of extreme importance.”
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