Russia expert Inna Sangadzhieva is a senior adviser to the Helsinki Committee and grew up in Kalmykya in southwestern Russia. She believes Putin is good in meetings with other heads of state and that he is good at saying what he wants to hear.
– He is very good at communicating with the West, with Bush, with Merkel. But Merkel I think understood who he was. She revealed him.
She refers to something Merkel allegedly said to the then American president, Barack Obama, on the phone in 2014. The backdrop is said to have been a telephone conversation she had had with Putin.
– She speaks with Putin in Russian and a few years ago she is said to have told Barack Obama that Putin lives on another planet. And that’s a good description, it’s another planet. His delusions and understanding of the world are completely twisted.
Also read: Rumors are swirling about Putin: – He is sitting in a bunker
– KNOW RUSSIAN: Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks Russian and could have talks with Putin in his mother tongue. Photo: Alexander Natruskin / Reuters
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– Just acting all the time
To illustrate how Putin uses his communication skills in meeting people when he needs them, Sangadzhieva points to a situation in 2004. In the city of Beslan in southern Russia, 338 people were killed after a hostage drama at a primary school.
In retrospect, Putin invited mothers who had lost their children in the Kremlin tragedy. These must have directed a lot of anger at him in advance, says Sangadzhieva.
– He invited the angry mothers of the killed children to the Kremlin and talked with them for a couple of hours. When they came out they said “oh, what a great man. A wonderful person. He immediately understood how we feel ». But that’s just nonsense. He just talked to them. It’s just acting all the time.
– BY BUSH: Here is Putin and former US President George W. Bush on the latter’s property in Maine. Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP Photo
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– Quite sociable
Former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik (KrF) has met Putin four times. He remembers that the Russian was insecure when he, as the new prime minister, met Bondevik, Bill Clinton and other heads of state in Oslo in 1999.
– We had a meeting at the Grand Hotel, and then he actually seemed a little insecure. A little groping, and when he had to answer my questions and comments, he sort of looked a little to the side of his co-worker for advice and hints.
– FIRST MEETING: Here Putin and Kjell Magne Bondevik are together in Norway in 1999. Photo: Bjørn Sigurdsøn / NTB
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For each meeting, Bondevik noted that Putin was becoming more confident.
– I have met politicians who are more charismatic, I have. But when he became more confident in the role, he was quite sociable and confident. Without I want to say he was the most charismatic.
After he resigned as Norway’s prime minister in 2005, Bondevik has followed Putin’s development via the media.
– He has obviously not only become more confident, he has become authoritarian. He uses body language and other means to mark his power. For example, with the long meeting table that he puts the guest at the end of or when he walks through the halls of the Kremlin, you see in the body language that now he wants to radiate power.
Also read: Rhetoric expert: – He is a rhetorical superstar
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– A bit rough
When asked if he remembers Putin as someone who used charm and charisma to get what he wanted, Bondevik recalls a meeting they had in the Kremlin.
– We sat with the map of the Barents Sea between us, and then he used his charm and his abilities to convince me of the importance of the Russian position. But of course I took care of the Norwegian interests and did not give in to it. So he does not have such an irresistible charm that you are pressured on the defensive, I do not think so.
Although Bondevik thinks Putin has a certain charming charisma, he has met other heads of state who praise him highly.
– Then I think of Bill Clinton who I have met many times. He has a lot more of that, and you can say that he has a warmth in his charisma that I do not think Putin has. Putin was sociable, nice and a bit rough, while Clinton radiates a human warmth that is much greater.
– Rough, can there be cultural differences?
– Yes, it may be, but it’s probably also a bit of his personality, I think.
– 2000: Here, Putin and the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, are pictured during a meeting in the year 2000. Photo: Rick Bowmer / AP Photo
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– Not much person or person
Jens Kjeldsen, professor of rhetoric at the University of Bergen, is quite clear that he can not say anything about how Putin is two-handed.
– But what I can say is that the fact that you are a nice person and easy to get along with in private, does not mean that you can not do terrible things. We know this from many dictators, that it is possible to be nice in person.
He points to what appeared to be a successful meeting between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
– Trump called Kim Jong Un “little rocket man” after their meeting, so they obviously had a great time.
Kjeldsen says Putin outwardly gives very little of himself.
– It may well be that Putin is a nice person who it is nice to be in the same room as. But in his speeches there is not much person or person above what he does. By that I do not mean that he is inhuman, but what you see in the speeches is not the private Putin.
He uses the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, as someone who shows more of himself in his speeches, while Putin in his speeches is only in the role of president.
– Then you can say that the pictures of him in a bare torso on horseback are the private person Putin, and you can be right about that. But at the same time it is an obvious staging of the role of a strong man.
– And now it is not the case that he is the only one who does this, we all do it all the time, so does Zelensky. But the main difference is that you do not get a sense of who Putin really is. You get more from Zelenskyj.
– Never gives anything of itself
Although social media has made even the greatest heads of state more open about who they are in private, Putin in no way follows this.
– Putin constantly presents himself as the strong man. Plus he never gives anything of himself, which is very popular today. Today we live in a world where you use social media, and many share everything, maybe a little too much, but Putin does not.
– That you appear in one way does not mean that you can not be private in another way.
Kjeldsen says that the distinction between who was public and private was much clearer in the past.
– Take for example the prime ministers, they had almost only a public role, but when TV came, it started to change and they showed more of who they were private.
Over time, public and private individuals have become more of the same role, he believes.
Kjeldsen uses the politician Martin Tranmæl, who was central in Norwegian politics in the first half of the 20th century, as an example of someone who appeared very different on and off the rostrum.
– He stood on the podium and screamed, simply. Much because he spoke to many. But it was also a role. Before he went to the podium, however, he was very nice and walked around the room and talked to people. He became different when he went up to the pulpit.
– With Putin, it is not so easy to know who is speaking when he is on the podium. Is it himself or is it a role? Kjeldsen asks himself.
– KNOWN FOR THE SPEECHES: Martin Tranmæl was known for speaking loudly and gesturing strongly in his speeches. Photo: Sverre A. Børretzen / NTB
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