St Petersburg, November 23, 2010
Naomi Campbell: You're in pretty good physical shape. How do you manage to keep yourself so fit?
Vladimir Putin: It’s very simple. Probably the same way you do.
Naomi Campbell: Actually, I don't work out as much as I should, but I do believe that it's a healthy mind as well as a healthy body that keeps me fit, sound and calm.
Vladimir Putin: Exactly. You just answered your own question.
Naomi Campbell: What's your fitness regime?
Vladimir Putin: I go to the gym, I swim daily and from time to time I meet with friends and do extra-curricular stuff. I had a good work-out just the day before yesterday.
Naomi Campbell: I've seen the picture of you doing the butterfly stroke and since I've been living in Russia I noticed most people here swim the butterfly. I can't swim the butterfly, but I was just in the Dead Sea in Jordan and it was the first time I floated in my whole life.
Vladimir Putin: You can swim any way you like in the Dead Sea, actually. But I was swimming the butterfly because the water was cold. It was one of the famous Siberian rivers and the water was something like 16-17 degrees Celsius. My idea was to get out of the water as soon as possible.
Naomi Campbell: You go for extreme sports like white-water rafting, motor racing, skiing, hunting. Is it a thrill, or just showing off? You must have had injuries.
Vladimir Putin: No, thank God, I I've been lucky and haven’t had any injuries. Back in my student days, I broke a finger during a street fight, but it was a punishment for breaking public order.
Naomi Campbell: In the summer you were photographed on a Harley-Davidson at a bikers' festival in Ukraine. How were you received by the bikers, the Night Wolves?
Vladimir Putin: Well, these are really cool guys, really tough guys. One of them was a really courageous person who travelled a few thousand kilometres on a two-wheeler bike. He's a handicapped guy with only one leg - he lost it somewhere in Yugoslavia during the war. I'm not the tough guy, those guys are.
Naomi Campbell: You obviously make a great impression on women. How do you feel about the journalism female students who posed for you in the calendar?
Vladimir Putin: I like the girls a lot, they're beautiful. I like the calendar but it's not the most important thing. As for the other one, well, in almost any country, probably in Russia in particular, it's fashionable to criticise people in power. If you come out in support of someone like me, you're going to be accused of trying to ingratiate yourself. The girls in the calendar were courageous and they were not scared. As student journalists, they couldn't fail to understand what might have been said to them after doing this. Nonetheless, they were not deterred and did the calendar anyway. So, frankly, that's what I liked the most.
Naomi Campbell: You've been known to attend bare-knuckle fights. Ever been in one?
Vladimir Putin: No, it's not my sport; since I was 14, I've done judo. But the bare-knuckle fight I attended was very impressive. These guys are tough. I watched the Russian, French and British teams and each and every one of these athletes deserves great credit. There are even women who do it.
Naomi Campbell: Big women?
Vladimir Putin: Not big, just strong-willed women.
Naomi Campbell: I'd like to see one of those. You're regarded as a tough leader, so why has the Russian prime minister decided to take part in the Global Tiger Initiative?
Vladimir Putin: It's simple. I once saw a TV programme about Russian and US researchers engaged in tiger preservation in the Far East.
I was impressed by what I saw, so I decided to take a closer look, and started reading about it and talking to experts. I decided support needed to be given to these activists, so I pulled together a programme, sponsored by extra funds. The total allocation was $5 million and then we started expanding the programme, which now includes leopards, white bears and other species.
Naomi Campbell: I was hoping to see a tiger on stage today. Actually, I'm hoping to see a white bear as I've lived in Russia for two years. I know you've come face to face with a tiger in the wild - how does that feel?
Vladimir Putin: It felt good for me, but not all of my Russian colleagues felt the same way. When I came to the reserve, a tiger was caught in a special trap, which was designed especially not to hurt the animal but to enable them to study it. The reporters from the Russian TV Channel One were there to broadcast the story and were sitting opposite the tiger in the trap. But the tiger was smart, and as soon as the cameras started rolling, it stuck its paw through the trap. You could say the reporters were afraid. We later managed to trap
the tiger, so we put it to sleep with a tranquilizer and the scientists managed to do what they had to do, took a sample of blood and even put a special collar on to track it. It turned out it was a female tiger and a blood sample analysis showed that it was pregnant. Shortly after that, we got pictures from video cameras that were hidden in the woods, which showed the same female tiger with two cubs. So I had the very best impressions of tigers in the wild.
Naomi Campbell: The Tiger Summit is a high-level event, but how difficult was it to get so many leaders to St Petersburg?
Vladimir Putin: Not at all, and practically everyone responded immediately. We gathered today at a lunch as a limited group and the conversation became very relaxed and casual very quickly. There was an atmosphere of trust and all colleagues spoke very sincerely about the need to preserve nature and preserve tigers. It is our hope that measures discussed today will truly be implemented.
Naomi Campbell: As a result of the Tiger Summit, participants agreed on a strategy to help save the tiger and take all necessary measures to make it happen. Do you think this will bring an increase in the number of tigers, will there be less poaching, and instead of having just 3,200 tigers in the world, will we soon have more?
Vladimir Putin: I'm sure we'll succeed. I see that my colleagues from other countries are determined to resolve this issue. Moreover, certain major steps are already being taken by Indian colleagues and other countries to help. In Bangladesh, for instance, they are doing work that is proving to be very interesting for us. It's the first time we heard about their initiatives and we will certainly take advantage of their positive experience.