of the position did not purchase a pizza which is one of the mistakes of the government does not increase your position again really there is a sense that the actual impact of the theory changed the serious political landscape be hugely affected by these things but nonetheless they are getting ahead and you are feeling very small steps now being taken towards this political reform parties are reporting from damascus now in a few moments i'll go off to talk to two authors who have been assessing putin's years in power first though let's do a quick recap of our top stories here on r.t. back to the kremlin putin becomes the first russian president to step in for. he was inaugurated during a leverage ceremony just a few hours ago he said to leave the country for an unprecedented six years promising to make russia stronger and more united. front wall on the windows of the french presidency as he promises growth instead of austerity on the collapse of

course he falls under the weight of france's mounting debt and it's straight to business for all and as he plans to fight against german led austerity measures for you. and bahrain author of these arrests the leading human rights activist one of the chief figures in the country's uprising it happened just days before his interview with julian. here on our t.v. you can watch it all day on tuesday. a lot of back and russia's top job all going off to war written on is years in power so far both of them under the spotlight that's right now.

hello again or welcome to spotlight the interview shout on party i'm now going over in today where a guest star chris hutchins and alex i'm going to cut up. since his appearance on the political arena twelve years ago glad reporter has always been in the spotlight of public attention his lady adeline's and the front pages of numerous periodicals and dozens of books have been written about people are mostly interested in his political career course but what about his personality rybak about lattimer put him as a person not a politician was published research authors the two people who claim they finally got an answer to the question of who is live who are my guests on the show today russian journalist and producer alex alan carr and his english colleague chris

hutchens who is joining us via satellite link probably. vladimir putin was barely known when he entered russian national politics back in one thousand nine hundred nine he's climb up the political ladder was rep ed henry prime minister acting president president elect he made it in less than a year in two consecutive presidential terms so his popularity inside the country skyrocket and his name turned into a brand in the international arena russians came to associate putin with the return of political stability and economic progress he's straightforward talking no nonsense approach. as well as he's tough stance on international issues have frequently irritated the west but have changed only been approved often in russia during his four years as prime minister putin preserved his popularity with the public on with his tough guy image however my situation changed in the lead up to

this year's presidential election the country witnessed the biggest antigovernment rallies since the time of yachts and the political turbulence did not prevent from clinching his presidential term he won with real action articles putin describe the awakening of the russian civil society as a little hint of easy power a byproduct of the economic stability he brought about. how gentlemen welcome to the show hello alexander hello crescent about you thank you both very much for being with us on the show first of all after after twelve years that putin has has been doing his best to keep his personality and enigma do you think do you think the question who is mr putin is this still is a still relevant after more than a decade of his dominance in russian politics christiane start with you. well it

certainly is here in london and i hope it is round the rest of the world too because you know i've spent six years working on this book and it took six years to fathom out who mr putin is and exactly what he's like i think if i had been writing a book about tony blair or george bush it would have taken six months but mr putin is a very deep very interesting man i hope the others will forgive me for saying they were a little superficial. he is yes he deserves a book and it took a lot of digging and a lot of persuading of a lot of being able to come forth with the arses of the questions that i had for him. mr corrupt are you are a journalist or producer who's turning to returning publisher well you are the man who has the right book and you also a co-author will it be easy to sell putin to the public in britain especially after the anti west the rhetoric that we're joining the election campaign recently i think there is

a huge interest towards which in in in the yuki despite the rhetoric well our one may refer to this as a referee or somebody else couldn't view it that we simply i think perceive it is part of the russian character i mean british people or british troops or file at least the nor the russians are emotional and that they love us for that and i think being emotional and sometimes sort of being succumbed to rhetoric is is a part of the russian character i mean we have we gauge and rhetorics in our kitchens so i think that people in britain will see sort of beyond that and these certainly wants to understand the man that britain will have to deal with. i know you haven't i haven't read this reasoned book but i did read your book about the beatles and you're really good in really understanding what the people are under

their masks this is what i think you're the best to do that what can you tell us about about food and that this question i've been asking to many people during the last couple of months do you believe that he is genuinely suspicious that he's anti western or is it just is it just a way to mobilize the russians. i don't think he's anti western i don't know he's anti anything really i just think he's interested as you quite rightly say and my interest is in finding out what makes people tick from the beatles to the man. who was the subject of my last book. i wanted to know what makes him laugh what makes him cry what his relationship is with his wife and his daughters. i was particularly fascinated by his upbringing you know it's staggering for people to learn that the man who now lives in palaces and travels the world and mixes with presidents and prime ministers was lived in

a one room flat and didn't go to school until he was eight this gave him all kinds of complexes and made him such an interesting man certainly the most interesting politician on the world stage today you said an interesting thing he didn't go to school until who was eight in russia of their time nobody went to school until they were eight that there was how those courses that work ok gentleman what what the russians are all in the english will and the english audience will certainly be interested to learn that while the russians will be well they will be reading your book that you're introducing in russia too they will be interested in understanding what kind of putin have we ell acted what kind of president will we be having for the for the upcoming six years would be a different putin or would be the same kind of food you're writing about i was under and the idea from you well i think that if we had an answer to that question i think we would be fortune tellers because on the life will tell what will

happen during the next few years but i think the writing is on the wall i think we will definitely see a new mr putin i think you are quite a few aces up his sleeve yet and i think it's particularly interesting to see russia's new president through the english eyes. i think that this is quite a unique book because so far it's the first truly sort of british book crease be the author be the englishman taking on the russian president i think is absolutely unprecedented let's make it clear clear to the target or to the views you refer to chris as the or three you are the publisher but you're also a co-author so so is so did you have to write it or or you edited it or were i mean well how did it work out obviously as it happens chris and my we've been friends

for quite a few years and we've been working on other projects together and i was a contributing journalist unusually and chris and i we went to western see be reared we need to do in this book and and we grew to be a core authors and i just obviously don't want to rain on christmas parade but. that is clear in the subtitle of the book with alexander corrupt go but obviously i'm quite proud to have pride of place here on the cover of the book and yes i've contributed as a journalist and as an executive editor as well so then the my next question is to you or your you present your book with the words i quote the highly personal biography of russia's leader you are what does it mean does it mean i will learn some new facts after reading your book well. i think mr or mrs putin will learn some new facts it is highly personal i mean the only thing is it really is yet. he

didn't really. delhi has until early read the manuscript some months ago but i only have other people's word for that but i guess it is highly it is highly personal and there are probably things in it with which he won't approve of simply not because they're going to throw him in a bad light but because i think he's a very private man and i think he likes to be an enigma i do believe that that amir putin never wanted the cloak of secrecy to be taken away from him i do believe i do believe that. this book is an end to become a part of mr putin's apology. our apology for what it is that i think i think the english korean used to say or it is believed that she used to say that she never apologizes and i think well if the queen doesn't i think why britain should. in this book you say putin is the most interesting man the most interesting

politician on the world stage today could yes if i want to what you want it sounds and what's so interesting for you a russian bear out about your president well first of all let me tell you about not long ago i was in the philippines i was on the island of mindanao which is obviously worlds away from russia and i was an information about putin's so i when you were out i was talking to a filipino man who named long time ago still in the late soviet union these he named hughes school football team sputnik was after he did that to coca-cola truck arrived with a portable movie screen showing the horrors of the sort of your plight but it's another story so i asked him what russian words does he more obviously apart from sputnik and his said spy sieber and the third one was put in i say no the way the

fourth word. chelsea. you know what they don't know he tells me in the philippines and i think they let him know so i will sort of ask you after you asked me what does it have been for me as a russian in the name porch and i would say if it is so compelling and interesting for a man in the philippines or brisk i must say that i am interested too to put it mildly say alexander the car pool and chris hutchins authors i'll gladly put in his biography spotlight will be back we'll continue this interview in less than a minute stay with us there are no.

ill. effects to.

welcome back to spotlight i love and just a reminder that my guests on the show here today are alexander caught up cohen chris hutchins the authors of the adam and putin's biography gentleman i want to

ask you the main question that i'm sure everybody wants to ask you these days what are your sources what were your sources of information about about vladimir putin well mr mr hudgens has admitted in one of his previous interviews that that the sources were so good that as early as in two thousand and five you chris knew that putin would step down as president in two thousand and eight and then would become prime minister and return to the kremlin in two thousand and twelve now later mr hutchens also said that he had so much to tell which was not told before because people interviewed was scant so what information have you have you discovered what were the people that you interviewed can you tell us a bit wary lives. yes it was a very wide selection of people i learned that he was going to step down in two

thousand and eight and become president again in two thousand and twelve in two thousand and six in a london square from a man who is very close to him and remains very close to him and called me a few minutes before this interview actually it was. well what i said but he has given me a lot of information which i believe came from mr putin himself but when you ask about the sources i went far and wide alexander's already told you about his trip to the philippines i went to los angeles to talk to jack nicholson about his party going without him in general nicholson never gives a lot of years i have tried and through i even i even caught him backstage but maybe he doesn't give interviews how did you do that. next time you want to do it call me. paul mccartney for example i mean i didn't just want to talk to politicians are didn't basically want to politicians at all or diplomats although one diplomat in england was very very interesting about tony blair's

meeting with vladimir putin but paul mccartney had a most interesting meeting with him at the kremlin a meeting in which mr putin went to great lengths to to engineers who organize and during it mrs mccartney the then heather mills mccartney offended him and she found herself on the wrong end of mr mr putin's i won't say temper but he was obviously extremely irritated by it to the minute the kremlin grounds unless unless the story is told in greater detail in the book by the book gentlemen i understand that you're advertising today you're selling the book but you claim that this book leaves no stone unturned i was and what about personal matters such things as putin's family was very sensitive about or were the size of putin's fortune these stones did you did they did you turn these stones in your book absolutely absolutely we did talking about the so-called fortune i think that anybody who

would tell you that he or she knows the size of the putin's fortune obviously would be uninformed to put it mildly or obviously we left no stone unturned in uncovering all that but again i think that we can go into greater detail here about all we can by the book and i would suggest the latter ok now now. talking about the friends i know i know chris that you probably will not give us the name of this mysterious british friend of mr putin's right but tell us tell us about mr putin's friends is it true that his and his closest friends are still these couple of guys from st petersburg and from the k.g.b. and these are the few people that he cause of france. no there there it's a much wider circle but it's a circle that he doesn't talk about there is for example the film director mikhail

cough who is very close with him goes to his house and he goes to party there which is where he met jack nicholson by the way and there is the influence of father to cone the priest at the street and skin monastery who he goes to in times of trouble and anxiety. we go into all those those names and more because it's important if we're going to tell the story about the man not just to go to politicians or diplomats or servants but to go to the people who know him who is whose company enjoys silvio berlusconi for example is an amazing influence on him. not political not politically just as well and if you have what's happened to mr bell it's going but a lot of the things in his life putin learn from him how to even went to his tailor briscoe and he learned he learned he learned how to holiday with. her and that's

interesting listen and but in this book that you did you try to dig into interpersonal things are like mr putin's family like why there's one more for the last like like five years has been so trying to be be so away from from the media attention the drugs these kind of things or you were interested mainly in their own self well obviously the major focus was on the man himself but i think it's also important to point out that there are some sort of our false our relations like obviously many many journalists many of tabloid writers make a lot out of the fact that putin is wife is not in the spotlight so to speak i think that you saw this to us but. it leaves no mystery i think the mysteries are not where other people i see them and i think this book is particularly interesting

for the fact that of doesn't look where others are looking and i think i will probably sound like an advertising man in what i would say go buy the book and you will see it for yourself would you predict that after the you know if you're asian mrs putin will be back to play thirst lady again i think absolutely yes why not. chris you said i guarantee you that you had a problem finding a publisher for this putin book and only mr karp coal to help you out why didn't the u.k. publishers buy it what i mean i mean because of the book or all you needed like the energy of mystical of course and these know how to help you're writing it and then further selling it i mean how did that work with with all due respect to mr grab it was about the book i mean there was a major british publisher that wanted the book but when they went to the chairman he said no if we write a book that offends putin we will not we will never sell another book not only in

russia but in all the old soviet union satellite states and they were afraid that it would ruin their business so all the british public is unless we produced an anodyne book the didn't reveal anything and they didn't attract putin's attention i believe this book certainly has then then they didn't want to know they were there were scared of it i was older is it coincidence that that this book is being presented. after the elections after putin returned to to. becoming the new president elect of the russian federation. did you did you like wait until the right time has come to to market well it was actually printed before the elections for. place that obviously reflects our confidence that mr putin will be elected i think is called publisher i obviously would be

lying if i didn't admit that i think we wanted to take advantage of the election to promote the book i think it's no coincidence but is just obviously it great occurrence that that mr putin has been just elected was there and. then you tell us when you were working on this book when will you come into russia interviewing people needing people talking to people who are close to the russian president that you have any sort of deal with putin with the crowd in through alexander or by yourself or did you were just just a just any other ordinary foreign journalist. no i didn't want any influence from the kremlin i don't believe in a sense of book if i had depended on dimitri pascoe of to to arrange things for me i did go and see him i did other one momentous day when i got caught in a red square parade or iesous one late one night which is another story which is

told in the book but no it was done entirely without any what would you call it official help. and another question to two to both of you all first of all there's that wonderful ad that i saw in the pictures are a double decker saying putin is coming well meaning the book is coming here but. it looks like like the russians are coming in minutes it's a great slogan but what kind of emotion. chris is it is it. awakening in london today when they see putin's coming the red buses. and that was my wording but what kind of emotion i think everybody in england is pretty any of everybody in britain and i hope everybody in the world is particularly interested in mr putin particularly because the events of the last few weeks you asked alexander if we would see a new mr putin

a different mr putin when he returns to the presidency my feeling is that we will this is this is there is a year magine his life as president as being a year this is just the start of his summer he's more confident he knows what he can do john borghetti described him as the most dangerous man in the world he's not is the most powerful man because he would not need bullets or bombs to to take over the world if he were to cut off the gas and the oil it would have a terrible effect so he knows that he's confident he doesn't have to fear the west he has restored russia's pride and that is his big thing anyway pride i mean he's a proud man and i respect him for that. i think it's a wonderful trait i was out there so putin is coming is your word if it's not christian do you come up with a yes absolutely we have to change jobs or because bush is already going to get thank you very much thank you thank you alexander thank you chris and good luck with your book thank you for your mind to that alexander protocol journalist

producers publishers and it is bridge colleague chris christie. the author of lot of who does biography work here in the studio that's it for now from all of us here spotlight will be back with more for his kind comments all of what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on the party and take care.