Kira Latukhina
The Prime Minister spends his birthday working
As is his tradition, Vladimir Putin marked his 56th birthday in his native St Petersburg - but he did not rest on that day. "This is a personal holiday, and Tuesday is a workday," Putin said at one of the meetings he addressed. "We must each plough our own furrow every day, like St Francis."
Even so, he began celebrating his birthday shortly after midnight. He arrived from Minsk after complicated talks with the Belarusian President (Russia agreed to grant Minsk a $2 billion loan) and headed straight for the Palace of Congresses in Strelna, where he joined the Governor of St Petersburg, Valentina Matviyenko, the Presidential Envoy to the North-Western Federal District, Ilya Klebanov, and a score of cultural and sports personalities in a film screening room. Among those present were Putin's two judo coaches, Vasily Shestakov and Anatoly Rakhlin.
The presentation of the educational film based on the book "Learning Judo with Vladimir Putin" was the first birthday gift to Putin. He wrote the manual together with Shestakov and sambo and judo Master of Sport Alexei Levitsky back in 2000. The manual was filmed in St Petersburg at the Sporting Excellence School and Putin demonstrated some judo tackles on the carpet at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence. Some of the frames in which he appears (for example, a meeting with young athletes) were shot in St Petersburg.
The film consists of four parts. It opens with Putin's story of judo and his own experience practicing the sport. The judo philosophy, which translates as "the gentle way," "means that you can make concessions only if they pave the way to victory," the Prime Minister says in the film.
Putin then goes on to demonstrate some of the tackles described in the book.
"These are his best tricks that helped him to become the champion of Leningrad and a Master of Sport," Shestakov explained. Watching the film, the coach could not restrain himself from praising his pupil: "Very high-class technique. He demonstrates with gusto." Viewers were shown only extracts from the film, and the only tackle they saw Putin demonstrated on the screen was a spectacular foot-in-stomach throw.
The third part features legendary Japanese judo wrestlers Yasuhiro Yamasita and Kesey Inoue, and also Russian world and European champions Alexander Mikhailin, Tamerlan Tmenov and Tea Donguzashvili, who demonstrated some of Putin's favourite tackles.
After watching extracts from the film and listening to the organisers, Putin was moved to deliver a short speech on judo and sports in general. "The title contains an advertising gimmick, he admitted modestly. Naturally, those who watch it will be learning not from yours truly, but from recognized giants of the sport."
The Premier believes that sport is directly connected with the living standard in the country: "There can be no healthy nation without sport. It is a universal method of consolidating society."
Afterward, Putin invited all the guests to a buffet in the adjoining room. He was immediately surrounded by journalists, which he did not mind. Someone asked him whether he preferred downhill skiing or judo. Putin looked surprised: "Skiing is recreation and judo is my whole life."
He then remembered an episode dating back to his time in St Petersburg. As a beginning skier he went to a skiing resort abroad. The female instructor there was amazed at how Putin could keep on his feet. "I felt encouraged," Putin said smilingly. ‘It's amazing,' the woman repeated. I felt I was growing taller," the Premier continued. "But then the girl added, ‘It's amazing how you can keep on your feet at all, with such technique'."
He was also asked about the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov's initiative in renaming Victory Avenue as Putin Avenue. It turned out that Putin had called Kadyrov from his car to congratulate him on his birthday on October 5th, and the latter told him about his initiative. "It was a very bad connection and I thought it was a joke," the Prime Minister smiled. The following morning Putin read in a newspaper that an avenue had indeed been named after him.
Nobody made grand toasts, with the exception of Valentina Matviyenko. She delivered a eulogy, the main message being that a person's worth is measured not by a high official position but by his actions. Matviyenko stressed that, though it does not behoove a president to do such films, it is a very useful thing and praised Putin by saying, "Your democratic attitude knows no bounds."
After the Prime Minister spoke with everyone who wished to talk to him, he went away to rest while Rakhlin shared his memories of coaching the future President. He revealed that Putin "likes offense and not defense," and that "he won not through strength, but through character". He went into judo seriously at the age of 13. At the time, this was "just the right age" to join professional sport, Rakhlin noted, adding that if Putin had continued his judo career he would have had a great athletic future.
In the morning, there was more work for the Prime Minister. He headed for the St Petersburg Trade Union Humanitarian University, Russia's equivalent to Harvard. This private university marks its 82nd birthday tomorrow. Its students are the children of managers and corporate CEOs (30%), teachers and doctors (30%) and workers (15%). The total enrollment in the day department is 3,000. Among its alumni are 11 Vice Governors.
Tuition costs 3,000 euros a year, and tuition fees account for half of the university's budget. The other half comes from renting out of space in the summer and from research, Rector Alexander Zapesotsky claims.
The university has 4 faculties and 21 major disciplines, including Russia's first-ever multimedia directing course. The Prime Minister was impressed by the demonstration of a multimedia directing class. He was also impressed by the facility as a whole: after 17 years under reconstruction it looks like an elite rest and recreation centre. It has a gym, a sauna, lounges with expensive furniture and fountains, a spa with a massage room and even a Yellow Submarine (a room for independent study). The passageway between the residence hall and the study building simulates an Italian street. A wax Juliet welcomes students from a balcony. Everything is done on a grand scale: the "submarine" was designed at a specialised design office and the media library has rare Beatles disks donated to the university by a Russian tycoon.
The only place the students do not frequent is St Petersburg's first domestic church. The Rector finds this fact distressing. He complained to Putin that young people's spiritual level is low.
Another headache for Mr Zapesotsky is the lack of government financing. The university does not have government-subsidised scholarships and "the bureaucratic mentality is that everything that belongs to the state merits support and everything that doesn't should take care of itself," he complained. He is dismayed that his university has not made the list of 50 innovative higher education institutions that qualified for federal budget support, saying, "National projects are the business of the whole nation and not of any particular department."
The Government and the regional authorities feel that they are responsible above all for what is within their brief, the Prime Minister explained, fixing his gaze on the Chairman of the Independent Trade Union Federation, Mikhail Shmakov, who was sitting across the table. "Let Mikhail Viktorovich (Shmakov) think about where to invest his money and remember that he has this university." Shmakov fidgeted in his seat and interrupted the Prime Minister, countering, "It is wrong that non-governmental universities are denied grants." "It sure is," Putin said, relenting.
The Rector's criticism of television and television journalists did not go over very well with the Prime Minister. "You say that television is the enemy of teachers. Could it be the fault of the teachers? After all, who brought them up?"
In the Prime Minister's opinion, the heads of the main television channels are "people of responsibility who are trying to change things, and they are succeeding in many ways." "We cannot revert to commanding the media," he objected to Zapesotsky. "You give the bureaucrats a chance to command the media and there will be no stopping them." Putin believes that the best solution is to place government orders with television, the film industry, theatres and universities in various fields connected with ideology, morality and education. "So far we have still been avoiding the expense," the Premier sighed.
Among the Rector's ideas that Putin liked was training specialists in conflict resolution at a separate department in order to be able to solve labour and social disputes. "Considering the country's development programmes we can't do without such specialists," Putin agreed.
The Premier then looked at a flood protection complex which had begun to be financed in 2005, when Putin signed a corresponding instruction to the Government. "I am glad that funds have been disbursed thanks to my efforts, for otherwise, the construction which had been dragging on for thirty years would be dead," the Prime Minister remarked enthusiastically.
He also went on to praise Valentina Matviyenko: "I am aware of some complaints about the city's administration, but I look at the results objectively and I believe that the Governor's effective work has done much for the city."
Putin continued the conversation about culture at the RWS-St Petersburg film studio, built with the money donated by AFK-Sistema (the total cost of the project will be $250 million). The Prime Minister was shown some state-of-the-art film equipment and promised to annually earmark 4.3 billion roubles in support of the film industry out of the federal budget beginning in 2010. Of that sum, about 2 million roubles will go to support films that instill values in Russian society. The producers of successful films will get a bonus of up to 10% of the box-office proceeds.
A special council for the development of the film industry will be created under the Prime Minister. The Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev announced that as of January 1, 2009, an electronic ticket system would be introduced to prevent box-office receipts from being pocketed by distributors.
Another item on Putin's cultural agenda was attending the 77th session of the General Assembly of Interpol which is marking its 85th anniversary. "Over the past decades that organisation has earned considerable authority, and the word Interpol has become known throughout the world," the Prime Minister said. Up to 7,000 criminals are caught through Interpol every year. "You coordinate the work of the international police community on a day-to-day basis. You help the special services and law enforcement bodies in various countries to find a common language," Putin complimented the Interpol representatives. But he also had a word of criticism: "The member countries should work together, promote a common position and avoid the practice of double standards." The Prime Minister believes that a lack of cooperation could impede the fight against terror.
Putin could not help reacting to a remark by Interpol's Secretary General Ronald Noble about Russian literature, when he cited "Anna Karenina" as a book about a crime. Putin objected, saying: "It is a story of love; ‘Crime and Punishment' is a more appropriate example, it is a manual professionals should work with."
Moscow issue