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Movie director Oliver Stone is being criticized for asking Russian President Vladimir Putin softball questions. NBC News Megyn Kelly was slammed for asking adversarial questions that Putin nevertheless can easily dismiss. So how does one interview Putin to satisfy the demanding critics?

Ive never interviewed the Russian leader, although I met with him during his first presidential term when I was editor of a business daily in Moscow. Based on that experience, and on having read and watched countless interviews with him, I rather think no one can do much better with Putin than Russian voters at his annual call-in show. They ask questions such as, Why is my salary as a grade school teacher in the Irkutsk region so low? or Where is the new apartment I was promised as a flood victim? Its easy to imagine the relevant local officials squirming as Putin promises to check into a specific case.

When Putin talks to professional interviewers, his answers, which have seemed for years to come off a stack of talking point cards, have the same function. They are signals and messages to someone who isnt in the room, but they are only secondary signals compared with what Putin actually does.

Its pointless to judge a journalist or filmmaker by what he or she asks Putin or how he responds. Putins public interactions are essentially one-sided, and though it might appear that hes reacting to an interlocutor, he doesnt really engage with the interviewers or with those who ask him questions during his carefully stage-managed call-ins and press conferences; he uses them. All they can do in response is try to use him, too to make money, enhance their standing, or try to get a life situation resolved.

In September 2000 about six months into his presidency Putin faced extended questioning from the formidable Larry King. Among his smooth stock answers was a spiel about Russias opposition to the U.S. anti-missile defense system in Europe; he repeated it almost verbatim to Stone 16 years later. His only misstep occurred, as many thought at the time, when King asked him what had happened to Kursk, the Russian submarine that foundered with its crew in the Barents Sea. It sank, Putin replied with a chillingly calm cynicism.

I no longer think that was a slip. In the most recent interviews, with Kelly and Stone, Putin wasnt shy about demonstrating misogynist and homophobic attitudes. With Kelly it was all mansplaining and unnecessary references to her kids; with Stone, it was quips about never having bad days because hes not a woman and about using judo if a gay sailor approached him in the shower. These tasteless jokes get quoted a lot as though they reveal something about his personality. But Putin doesnt make them naively: He knows how they make enlightened Westerners squirm. Putin can afford to be brash and insensitive. To him, thats evidence hes impervious to comments that would ruin a Western politician. That even appeals to his American fans, at least the ones Ive met, because it rejects political correctness.

I cant recall a single interview or public appearance in which Putin revealed anything accidentally or under pressure. Hes had editors of publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to the German tabloid Bild ask him pointed, tricky, mock-softball, pseudo-naive questions. Hes conducted four-hour press conferences and five-hour call-in shows. On each and every one of these occasions, he delivered a calculated performance to a specific audience without emotion. His dissembling is always deliberate, and his deviations from facts are meant to amplify the message.

In the case of foreign interviewers, the audience is the governments and political establishments of their countries and, to a lesser extent, the domestic audience that expects him to hold his own against the West. The message he has for foreign leaders hasnt changed in 17 years: Russia is a sovereign power with a set of historic interests that it will pursue no matter what; Western powers cant tell Russia what to do.

Ever since he came to power, Putin has been absolutely predictable in his central messages. An interviewer can only hope Putin comes up with a new turn of phrase or shows a little bit of his tightly guarded private life. He told Stone hed become a grandfather a tidbit that wasnt revealed to the Russian media. That made some Russian commentators jealous, with one complaining that the American movie star received more personal stuff than (Putin had) given in all these years to any interviewer with a Russian passport.

The most important lesson of understanding Putin is an old one: actions speak louder than words. Its these actions that deserve to be scrutinized and interpreted, however glamorous a high-profile interview may be.

Bloomberg

Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion web site Slon.ru.

Originally posted here:
In media interviews, Putin stays in formulaic control - Chicago Tribune