Izvestia: “He Likes Attack, not Defence”
Premier marks his birthday amid work
Vladimir Putin turned 56 yesterday. He spent his birthday in his native St Petersburg and started his birthday party shortly after midnight, though he admitted that he was born in the early hours of the morning. He had spent a very busy day launching a film about judo, visiting the Trade Union Humanitarian University and a film studio, and then talking with Interpol.
"Everyone should plough his furrow every day, like St Francis," Putin once said, and he kept his word even on his birthday. In fact, his native city even sprang a few surprises on him.
Arriving in St Petersburg from Minsk late on Monday night, Vladimir Putin headed for the Constantine Palace in Strelna. People had gathered well in advance for the presentation of an educational film, "Learning Judo with Vladimir Putin," an adaptation of a book of the same title that he co-wrote with his coach and now State Duma deputy, Vasily Shestakov, and Professor Alexei Levitsky of the Fitness and Sports University.
Putin appeared in the screening room at 0:15, already a year older.
Within minutes, the invited audience was watching the first frames. The film consisted of four parts: the first part showed Putin speaking, the second part showed him demonstrating holds, ("the holds that helped him win his bouts, become the champion of Leningrad and a Master of Sport"), the third part showed Japanese wrestlers demonstrating, and the fourth part showed Russian wrestlers demonstrating.
"I was lucky enough to be introduced to the wonderful world of courage, sincerity and nobility from childhood," Putin said on the screen, as the flesh-and-blood Putin was watching. He said that the film could not fully convey "the drama or the passion of wrestling," but that it was valuable because it featured "the world's greatest masters."
The audience saw the demonstrations, the screen faded out and the "author and guiding spirit of the film," Vladimir Putin, was invited to the microphone.
Mr Putin came to the podium at exactly 00:30. He shrugged and said, "I don't know whether it is early morning or late at night," and went on to divulge a secret: the film is an "advertising gimmick; after all, judo enthusiasts will learn the tricks of the sport not from yours truly, but from real giants of the sport." He then hastily left the podium.
"Just a second," the chief editor of the Baltic news agency, Olga Krupenye, pleaded. She reminded those present that the gathering was devoted to a very special occasion. We did not choose the date for launching the film by chance. We hope you will like our gift."
"He won not through strength but through character"
It looks as if Putin did indeed like the gift, because he invited the guests to share "a breakfast, lunch or dinner," and wish him well on the day.
"If you mention the word ‘president', every second person will turn around. Everyone wants to be president." This is the intended effect that the film was supposed to produce on the audience, in the opinion of St Petersburg's Governor Valentina Matviyenko.
Ms Matviyenko, sporting a loud violet dress, kept repeating that she was not saying "anything complimentary," though she waxed lyrical about the fact that Putin had not only inspired the film, but had taken part in it, something not every person in his position would have agreed to do.
Meanwhile, journalists peppered the Prime Minister with questions. One question was about the birthday gift from Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who inaugurated "Vladimir Putin Avenue" in Grozny on his own birthday on October 5.
"I rang him up (to congratulate him on his birthday - Izvestia), he told me about it, and I thought it was a joke, but I read the report in a newspaper today," Putin said laughingly. Then, growing serious, he added, "I had mixed feelings, I don't like such things all that much."
"What do you like more, skiing or judo?" the journalists asked.
"Skiing is recreation, judo is my whole life," Putin replied and recounted an episode from his youth when he "still worked in St Petersburg."
At the time when the future president was still a newcomer to skiing, he went to France with a friend. The female instructor who watched him go down a slope just said, "Fantastic." "It cheered me up," Putin admitted. However, she then continued, "It's fantastic that you can stay on your feet at all." "I still felt as if I had grown taller," the Prime Minister added.
"What tactics does Vladimir Putin prefer in judo?" we asked Anatoly Rakhlin, who had coached Putin since the age of 13.
"He likes attack, not defence," the coach said, adding that his charge "won not through strength but through character." In general, "if he had kept on training, he could have had a great future in sport."
"Who thought all this up?"
Although Vladimir Putin did not become a great sportsman, his sports training is evident. Early in the morning, the Prime Minister arrived at the St Petersburg Trade Unions Humanitarian University, only to be pleasantly surprised. The university, which will mark its 82nd birthday tomorrow, was described as a "model of the multi-cultural world," by its president Alexander Zapesotsky. The Prime Minister was first taken to the so-called "Italian Street", the walls of which were designed to look like two-storey houses. A Juliet made from either wax or plastic stands on a balcony. On another balcony underwear is being dried. There are flowers and porcelain cats on the window sills.
"Students should have a chance to unwind," Mr Zapesotsky explained as he led Mr Putin into the lounge: a small pool with a fountain (instead of the sea and the surf), deck chairs, and a notice, which reads: "You can dream on the beach, look and listen. No swimming, fishing, crocodile-feeding or stone-throwing".
Needless to say, there were no crocodiles, but only sleepy females students relaxing in the deck chairs.
"Who thought all this up?" Putin wondered.
"All of us together," Mr Zapesotsky replied modestly.
Putin was shown a computer class designed by the students as a "yellow submarine". There are gold and silver Beatles discs on the walls and wax figures of the university rector and John Lennon in the corners. The guests were welcomed by a frogman, also made from wax.
Still digesting what he had seen, Putin proceeded to the library where he talked with the staff and students. Mr Zapesotsky complained that "television is the teacher's worst enemy", accusing it of being immoral.
"Perhaps it is the teacher's fault and not television's?" the Prime Minister suggested.
He said that many things needed to be changed, but one must give due credit to the heads of TV companies, whom he described as "people of responsibility".
"In regards to education and morals in general," Putin breathed a heavy sigh, "the state alone cannot cope with the problem."
"You are holding a thorough discussion of our problems, and are going to conduct a meeting on the film industry - all on your birthday. This is not the usual way of celebrating birthdays," People's Artist Roman Gromadsky, who heads a department at the university, said, unable to conceal his admiration.
"Everyone must plough his furrow every day, like St Francis," Putin replied modestly. "Today is Tuesday, a workday..."
