Putin Blows His Top At Russian Cabinet Meeting [Video]
Vladimir Putin blows his top in a new video that has gone viral.
Putin, who usually exudes a calm (albeit occasionally menacing – or is that just me?) air in press conferences and interviews, was covertly filmed at a meeting with Russian cabinet ministers and regional leaders on Wednesday.
Reporters at the meeting had been instructed to turn their cameras off, but one reporter furtively kept filming as Putin’s temper began to unravel. The resulting video was leaked by a Russian news agency on Wednesday (and is embedded below for your viewing discomfort).
While Putin never raises his voice to Bill O’Reilly volumes, the Russian president’s words suggest he’s pretty enraged as he proceeds to chew out his cabinet. The Christian Science Monitor‘s Fred Weir helpfully translated Putin’s measured, angry statement as he criticizes his staff for their failure to implement his presidential election promises:
“How are we working? The quality of work is extremely low. If we’re going to work like that then we’ll achieve [nothing].
“If we don’t do this, we will have to admit that either I’m not working effectively, or you all are working badly and you all should leave. I want to draw your attention to the fact that today I am leaning towards the second option.”
Putin is a stoic, unemotional character at the best of times, and this leaked footage will show many Russians a side of their president that is not often seen in public.
Mind you, if you think Putin blows his top here, comments from his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, suggested he was far more furious about the leaked video. In a statement released to press, Peskov said:
“What was published from the closed part of the meeting is outrageous and unacceptable from an ethical point of view. We plan in the near future to make contact with the leadership of the publication, to ask for an explanation.”
Yeah, not sure I’d like to be the journalist who secretly filmed this right now. You can watch Vladimir Putin blow his top in the footage below:
