Testimonials: they recount their meetings with Vladimir Putin

He’s a chefState always more difficult to understand. In an attempt to unravel the Putin mystery, journalists from France Télévisions interviewed political figures who had known him at different times in his life. Among them, Sylvie Bermann, former ambassador to Moscow, François Hollande, former President of the French Republic and Vladimir Fedorovski, former Russian diplomat. The latter looks back on the childhood of Vladimir Putin who was abandoned and was trained by the rules of the underworld of Saint Petersburg.

“As long as he is not forced to retreat, he advances”affirms François Hollande who assures that the head of the Kremlin still has the same position: “the balance of power”. The former KGB has become an expert in the art of destabilizing his interlocutor. “In reality, you only know what he wants to do when he has done it”testifies Sylvie berman. Vladimir Putin is such an unpredictable man that some wonder if he has lost his mind about the war in Ukraine. An opinion that François Hollande does not share at all. According to Vladimir Fedorovskywho read his file when Putin was in the KGB, his superior to him reproached to be “impervious to danger”.