Maxim Tovkailo, Sochi
Outspoken Putin impresses Valdai Club
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with 45 members of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday. President Eduard Kokoity of South Ossetia and President Sergei Bagapsh of Abkhazia met club members shortly before the meeting commenced.
The Valdai Club brings together major foreign political scientists and journalists, such as Alexander Rahr, an expert from the German Council on Foreign Relations; Professor Anatol Lieven of King's College London; Professor Nobuo Shimotomai of Hosei University, Tokyo; and Dr Nikolai Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian Programmes at the World Security Institute in Washington, to name just a few.
Mr Putin, in an immaculate grey suit, talked to club members for more than three hours at the Congress Hall of the Rus recreation centre, where the guests were treated to smoked meat, fruit and wine.
The meal was forgotten when a correspondent of The Guardian asked the Prime Minister whether Russia's response to the Georgian action was adequate, to which Mr Putin replied, "I am surprised at the might of the Western propaganda machine. This is amazing, just astounding. It shouldn't wash, but it does somehow! What did you expect us to do, brandish a penknife there? Did you expect us to fight with slingshots? They should have known they'd get what was coming to them. Or did you expect us to wipe our bleeding nose and bow our head down?"
When asked why Russia had invaded Georgia, Mr Putin cited the history of World War Two: "Soviet troops were not alone when they took Berlin-the American, British and French were also there. Should the Allies have been satisfied with skirmishes along the border? No! The aggressor had to be punished."
The suspense grew when Mr Putin referred to the United States, which had "trained the Georgian military and given Georgia huge amounts of money." He also said that the Russian secret service had closed nongovernment organisations that had called for Northern Caucasian republics to secede from Russia.
The harsh and outspoken Mr Putin earned approval from several Valdai Club members, Mr Bobo Lo, director of the Russia and China programmes of the London-based Centre for European Reform, told Gazeta. Piotr Dutkiewicz, Director of the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University (Canada), was impressed by Mr Putin's assuredness as Prime Minister, and said he expected him to be harsher on the West. Professor Dutkiewicz thinks the meeting with Mr Putin will make political experts reevaluate the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. James Sherr, director of the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Britain's Royal Institute of International Affairs, however, is of a different opinion. He thinks Russia is as much to blame as Georgia. Russia is unlikely to win over global, especially European, public sympathies, says Sergei Karaganov, head of the Russian Council for Foreign and Defence Policy and one of the Valdai Club organisers. "We shouldn't avoid difficult questions and should answer them whenever possible," he remarked.