From Ridus.ru:
Putin‘s top comments spread on the web after his ‘direct line’
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, has beaten his record for the length of his ‘direct line’, questions and answers with Russians, which lasted 4 hours 47 minutes.
Putin‘s 11th ‘direct line’ lasted 20 minutes longer than the previous one, which ended after 4 hours and 26 minutes. During this time, the president managed to answer 85 questions. A few of his answers were spread at lightning speed across news websites and on social networks.
The ‘Ridus’ editors have monitored the statements that attracted the most interest from internet users and posted them in reverse order.
11. Putin called his former finance minister a slacker.
‘He’s a slacker, he doesn’t want to work’, Putin said about the former finance minister Aleksei Kudrin, refusing his request to return to government.
10. Putin responds to Venediktov’s Stalinism
Vladimir Putin did not agree with the opinion of the journalist Aleksei Venediktov about the signs of Stalinism in modern Russia: ‘I don’t believe that we have elements of Stalinism: a cult of personality, mass violations of the law, repression and labour camps’, the head of the state responded. ‘There’s nothing like that in Russia, and there never will be – society has changed, and won’t allow it.’
9. Putin regrets the money spent on migrant passports
‘We won’t introduce migrant passports earlier (2015 – ed) because it’s expensive to print them, and the money is being better spent by those in charge of our budget’, Putin responded to a resident of the Moscow Oblast, who thinks that the immigrants are bringing drugs and crime to Russia.
8. Putin commented on Berezovsky‘s letter
‘The letter was of a personal nature, even though we didn’t have a close relationship. All the same, he came to me with a question… My colleagues asked me to publish the letter, but God has saved me from that’, said Putin, commenting on a letter he received from the disgraced oligarch. ‘Yes, he wrote that he had made many mistakes, asked for forgiveness, and asked about the possibility of returning to the motherland’, he said.
7. Putin admitted that he loves Ukraine
A Paralympian from the Nizhegorod Oblast said that in Russia, unlike Ukraine, does not have specialist facilities for disabled swimmers.
‘In some ways, Ukraine is better than us, I love Ukrainian culture, the Ukrainian people, they’re a part of our collective soul. What’s so surprising that they’ve overtaken us in some areas?’, the Russian president said.
6. Putin and the inflated ‘Magnitsky list‘
The introduction of the ‘Magnitsky list’ was just chest puffing: and that’s something we’re the best at. It’s imperialist behaviour in the field of foreign policy”, the head of state responded to a question about Russia’s foreign affairs policy and the cooling of relationships with the West.
5. Putin called the head of a village a pig
Putin called the head of the Beregova village in the Omsk Oblast a ‘pig’, when he found out that a local resident could not go to see him.
‘It’s as hard to get there as it is Berlin’, pensioner Alevtina Rapatsevich described the situation in terms of getting an appointment with the mayor. ‘Well, he’s a pig’, the president replied.
4. Putin talks about Chubais‘s colleagues in the CIA
‘It’s all very funny there. For example, Anatoliy Borisovich [Chubais] had CIA employees working around him, and when they went back to the USA, they were tried for embezzlement during privatisation and breaking the laws as intelligence officers’, Putin said during his answer to a question as to how much longer he can tolerate Chubais being in power.
3. Putin said that the presidency is his entire life
‘It’s a philosophical question. I am infinitely grateful to fate and the Russian citizens for trusting me to be the head of the Russian state. It’s my whole life. Whether it is enough to be happy, I don’t know. That’s a separate issue’, Putin said, responding to a question about whether he was happy.
2. Putin expressed his hope for an objective hearing in the Kirovles case
‘People who are fighting corruption need to be completely clean, otherwise it’s all just PR and political advertising’, said the president, commenting on the ‘Kirovles’ case, in which Alexei Navalny is a defendant. ‘And nobody should be under any illusions: if someone shouts out loud ‘stop, thief!’, that doesn’t mean that he himself is allowed to steal.’
[Note: there’s a superb explanation of the basics of the Kirovles case here.]
1. Putin values Gerard Depardieu‘s contributions to Russian culture
‘Depardieu was granted citizenship in a special way because of his services to Russian culture’, Putin replied to a question from a french immigrant, complaining that some people have to wait several years for citizenship. ‘It’s not a special Kremlin project’, the president said. ‘Of course, we happily gave him a passport, and even thanked him for it.’
Comments from Ridus.ru:
olipts:
The show was spectacular, I watched it in one sitting.
bobiber-7455:
‘Depardieu was granted citizenship in a special way because of his services to Russian culture’, Depardieu‘s one of ours.
Stepans:
So many people, so many questions. Everyone’s saying that there were 4 million questions.
Officialklimova: (responding to above)
In five hours, it’s not at all practical to respond to all of them.
NOCTmind:
‘Putin regrets the money spent on migrant passports’ I have no words … Long live Moscowbad!
valery-2700:
Just more blah blah blah. I’m sick of it. He needs to change the record.
asinch: (responding to above)
You too.
Karabaso4ka:
All the pictures on the TVs are the same except for one WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Чеширский котик: (responding to above)
Big Brother is watching you.
Alex-3433:
‘3. Putin said that the presidency is his entire life’, so we should understand that until he pops his clogs he’ll be president? Toska
moyaoborona:
As expected, absolute clownery. A one man show.
LaY_zzz:
The main point is that he beat his record. Who cares what he was saying?
Tema: (responding to above)
He was deliberately raising the bar
tvtat:
He didn’t reply to the main question: ‘Why has the country continued to deteriorate under his leadership? When will the twelve years of growth we were promised start?’
The road without end.:
Why bother asking the question??? If we all know the answer.
александрина:
‘… People who are fighting corruption need to be completely clean …’ That means there’s nobody to fight corruption in Russia!
Дед Егор:
There is. But the corrupt authorities immediately start smearing them with their own shit.