Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) delighted children and adults alike at the skating rink on Red Squre.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Bar Skating
// Vladimir Putin relaxes on Red Square
Russian President Vladimir Putin went skating on Red Square Monday evening. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov tells of his performance on and off the ice that evening.
The president went skating after meeting the Berezka ballet ensemble. There were a large number of children waiting for him. They were the same children who had taken part in the presidential New Year's show that morning.
As he approached the rink, the president saw on of the main organizers of the ice festivity, Bosco di Ciliegi head Mikhail Kusnirovich and went up to him. The president had two choices. He could enter the rink and go up to the New Year's tree, or he could sit on the podium. He didn't want to sit on the podium once he entered the rink. But he didn't make it to the tree either. Two or three hundred children rushed up to him. The situation intensified when he made a motion to the children sitting on the podium. That was another two or three hundred who, seeing a living legend for the first times in their lives, all wanted to touch him with their own hands.
The last time anything like this happened to the president was five years ago in Kazan at the tradition Tatar holiday of Sabantui.
Then the president was given a gift from GUM Department Store, a round iron box of candies. The president took it, looked inside and told the children, “Here's a gift for you. GUM is treating!”
He did put two handfuls of the candy in his jacket pocket before handing it over to the children.
He handed the box into the outstretched hands of the children then somehow it ended up in the hands of skater Irina Slutskaya, who was standing on the sidelines.
“For me?!” she exclaimed, astonished. Without waiting for an answer, she joked, “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], if I am poisoned…”
Putin smiled. It didn't look as though he understood what she was talking about and he nodded his head distractedly, as if to say that she could decide for herself what to do with the candy. She meant that she could overeat with so much tasty candy in front of her. I am sure the figure skater had nothing other than that in mind when she spoke those words. I am not even sure she knows about what happened to Alexander Litvinenko. But that idea came to mind too, or at least to mine.
The president then spent a lot of time being photographed with the kids, and even more time saying goodbye to them. The he left the rink and headed toward Spassky Gate. One of those accompanying him suggested that they stop in at Boscow Bar, the windows of which look out onto Red Square, to drink tea. Putin agreed readily and swerved in that direction. In the bar, the president shook hands with all of the waiters before taking tea.
He asked if he could keep his jacket on. The request was somewhat mystifying – he couldn't have gotten that cold. Probably he wanted to keep it on because the pockets were full of candy. He ate them continually and the table was soon littered with wrappers. He ate with the enthusiasm of someone who wanted to prove that you couldn't be poisoned by anything from his hands. But there was probably nothing like that going on in his mind. History will record that the president had a sweet tooth.
“Thank you for supporting the idea of the rink,” Putin told someone near him.
“It was a good idea,” that person answered. “If it had been bad, I wouldn't have supported it.”
The president began recollecting about what rinks he liked, and said that the best in Europe was the on the Grand Place in Brussels.
“The International Flower Festival takes place there every year,” Kusnirovich put in.
“Really?” the president asked. “I have to go some time,” clearly thinking about the free time he will have after 2008.
Someone else said, “It's no worse here on Red Square than in any city of Europe.”
“Better,” the president said. “Let's call the skaters over if they're still here.”
While someone went to get the skaters, the president asked politely about GUM. Kusnirovich honestly answered that things were going well and politely invited the president to stop in some time.
“You know,” the president answered, “I've been in the Kremlin six years and every morning I say to myself that I am going to take my girls and see the Kremlin from the outside. And I still haven't done it. But I really want to.”
The first skater to come into the bar was Tatyana Navka. The Olympic champion was highly recognizable, since she came in on skates. She was followed by Tatyana Tarasova in a pretty red fur-edged hat. It was so pretty that she wouldn't take it off, just as the president kept his coat.
Roman Kostomarov, Elena Vodorezova and Ilya Averbukh came in. Irina Slutskaya was the last to arrive. The president delighted her with an announcement that she had very professional hosted the “Dancing with the Stars” show. That meant that he had watched it.
She told the president that the country needed more inks for figure skaters, on which hockey players should never be allowed under any circumstances, because they earn money, and as soon as a rink opens, the hockey players fill it immediately.
Averbukh said that the problem could be solved by building rinks without sidelines. Sidelines don't bother figure skaters, but they are essential for hockey players so they can throw each other into them. Averbukh added that Moscow needed at least two rinks for figure skating.
“What do you mean two?!” Tarasova exclaimed. “Ilyusha Averbukh needs two for himself! And where are we supposed to train? We need six!”
The president ran out of candy at that moment. He glanced around with a worriedly. Another box was brought.
“Well, maybe that enough about skating,” the tactful Averbukh suggested.
“I like it,” the president said.
Slutskaya was already talking about how she has a photograph of herself with Putin in her wallet next to her driver's license. “Thank you very much, Vladimir Vladimirovich, because it's very effective,” she said.
Kostomarov told a story. He was driving to a shooting of “Dancing with the Stars” in full gear, firmly buckled up, as always. He was stopped by a road cop who looked at him and ask, “Are you a foreigner or something?” “What foreigner?” Kostomarov asked in horror. “I'm Russian.” “Then why are you buckled up?” the cop responded. “It buzzes why I'm not buckled,” Kostomarov answered. “Here, I'll show you what to do,” the cop answered and disconnected the buzzer for him.
The president liked the story and told about a cop who stopped a driver “buckled in here and here” (the president showed where the seat and shoulder belts go). He pulled on a safety belt and asked, “Are you ready to have 100 rubles pressed out of you?”
“O!” Kostomarov exclaimed, pointing at the television over the bar. On screen, the president of Russia walked out onto the skating rink on Red Square. Buryat children came running and tumbling to tell about how much they like the main square of the country, where such a wonderful skating rink. The president held out his hand to them and they came at him on skates, skating and tumbling.
The skaters were engrossed.
The president was alarmed. “What are you doing? I'm here. What are you watching that for?” he asked.
Skaters didn't know what president to look at. That questioned was answered when Putin asked that the volume on the TV be turned up.
Tarasova, taking the baton from the lips of Slutskaya told a story about Moscow policeman. After French skater Brian Joubert won the European championship for men's singles skating, he came to Moscow to take part in a show on the rink on Red Square. He decided to take another skate on the rink the morning after the show. He was having great time. He left the Baltschug Kempinski Hotel and was stopped by a policemen for a document check within minutes. He had left his passport in the hotel, so as not to lose it. The policeman considered his explanation resisting his authority and took him in to the station to establish his identity. The organizers came and bailed him out.
“Yeah,” Putin said, “you have to carry your passport.”
He probably forgets his too.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 28, 2006
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