Oliver Stone - The Putin Interviews

VP:You see the horses?

OS:Yes, Arabian horses?

VP:Yes, mostly.

VP:Do you want to see our church?

OS:Yes. When you come here, where do you sit, if you sit? Are there any chairs? Do you sit down?

VP:No, there are no chairs in a Russian Orthodox Church. The mass is served while you stand.

OS:I see.

VP:It’s the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church.

OS:People don’t pray kneeling, they pray standing.

VP:Well, you kneel, but you don’t sit on anything while you pray. Do you know where this icon comes from? I brought it from the United States. The patriarch of the Russian Church abroad presented it to me while I was staying in the United States.

OS:Was this one of your major problems with communism, that it was atheistic? You didn’t feel that it appealed to the people?

VP:Well, I think that happened at a certain moment when I understood it. You see, it’s St. Elizabeth. She was the wife of the Governor General of St. Petersburg, and when he died at the hands of terrorists, she founded a monastery. And then she took her vows. After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks executed her, and the Russian Orthodox Church abroad announced her as a saint. When I was staying in the United States, I was presented with this icon from the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. And I brought this icon here, to my home. And all of a sudden I understood that she got back to her home, because it used to be her home in the past.

OS:I was talking about your adoption of Orthodox religion back in the Russian system. You’ve been a proponent of that.

VP:Well it’s quite simple really. When I was a child my mother baptized me.

OS:Legally?

VP:Yes, well they tried not to speak about that publicly. But that was absolutely legal. She went to church and she asked to have me baptized.

OS:But bringing this back and making it frontal in Russian life has made you very popular with most of the population?

VP:I was not the one to do it, to make it this central element. It was done by the Russian people themselves.

OS:Okay, I understand. But there’s been a renaissance.

VP:This renaissance is due to the fact that the communist ideology ceased to exist. And in reality there was some sort of an ideological vacuum. And this vacuum could be filled by nothing else but religion.

OS:Right. I see.

VP:You asked me about the baptism. I can tell you an interesting story. Recently I was talking to the patriarch of Russia and Moscow, Kirill. I asked him how he had come to this church. And he told me that his father was a priest. And I asked him where. And he told me in Leningrad. I asked him in what church he was serving. And he named the church. And I also asked him during what years he was a priest there. And he named the years. And it turns out that I was baptized exactly at that church during those years. I asked him, “What was the name of your father?” He said, “Nicolau.” “And were there any other Nicolaus apart from your father at that church?” And he said, “No.” “Do you know,” I’m telling him that, “your father was the one to baptize me. Because my mother told me that the name of the priest who had baptized me was Nicolau.”

OS:So this is your dacha, your ranch?

VP:This is the official state residence.

OS:And you come here on weekends?

VP:Well, I almost live here. Partly here and partly in the Kremlin.

OS:Oh, I see. So it’s about 25 minutes, 20 minutes from Moscow?

VP:20 minutes or so.

OS:For example, this weekend you have guests come over for the weekend?

VP:Right now?

OS:This weekend, for example?

VP:Right now my daughters are here. They are staying here and we agreed to have dinner together after our meeting with you.

OS:That’s nice—not too early, I hope. The two daughters are married and they bring their husbands, so you meet your sons-in-law on the weekend?

VP:Yes, they have their own family life and we meet, of course.

OS:So are you a grandfather yet?

VP:Yes.

OS:Do you like your grandchildren?

VP:Yes.

OS:So are you a good grandfather? Do you play with them in the garden?

VP:Very seldom, unfortunately.

OS:Very seldom. Do the sons-in-law argue with you? Do they have different opinions, do they give you sort of gossip?

VP:Well, sometimes their opinions are different, but we’re not arguing—we’re having a discussion, so to speak.

OS:Daughters too?

VP:Yes, them too.

OS:That’s nice.

VP:But my daughters are not into politics and they’re not into large business. They are into science and education.

OS:They both studied to be professionals.

VP:Yes, they graduated from university. They are now writing their theses.

OS:You’re a very lucky man. Two good children.

VP:Yes, I’m proud of them.

OS:You’ve talked much about the multipolar world and the importance of it. Balances of power. But you haven’t said anything about China.

VP:China can speak for itself.

OS:But it is a very important regional power and world power, now.

VP:Yes, no doubt about it. It’s a world power.

OS:Right. And naturally if the US is the dominant world power they are going to run into issues not only with Russia, but with China.

VP:I think it’s always about global leadership—not arguments about some second rate regional issues. And the competition is primarily among the world powers. That’s the law. The question is what are the rules by which this competition is developing. I would very much like common sense to accompany any competition like that.

OS:I know that Russia has grown closer to China. Your trade agreements. I don’t know if you’ve had military agreements.

VP:Russia doesn’t need any special agreements to get closer with China. Russia and China are neighbors. We have the longest joint border in the world, I believe. So it’s quite natural that we should maintain good neighborly relations. So there is nothing strange about that. On the contrary, I think that’s very good, both to the people of China and to the people of Russia. And to the whole world. We are not trying to build any military blocs.

OS:I understand.

VP:But our trade and economic ties are developing dynamically.

OS:But China has made it clear that it wants to avoid confrontation with the United States, as does Russia.

VP:Well, that’s good. That’s the right thing to do. We also want to avoid confrontation. We don’t want any confrontation with the United States, because we have our issues to attend to.

OS:I understand, but Ukraine has brought you into a direct, potential conflict.