Operation Seduction

‘Putin appears. It's short, thin, almost weak in a grant suit and grey tie. He doesn't look like his forty-nine years old. The Russian president takes a somewhat awkward step towards the grandstand by a erstwhile athlete, suggesting shyness, which spontaneously induces sympathy. The politician receives warm applause before he speaks.” Sylvie Kauffmann writes in the book Blinded. How Berlin and Paris gave Russia a free hand.”