“That was the Champions League,” said Roger Köppel euphorically about Vladimir Putin’s hour-long appearance at the Valdai Conference on Friday. Köppel traveled to Moscow especially for this purpose. The “Weltwoche” publisher and former SVP National Councilor then reported enthusiastically about Putin’s four and a half hour appearance. “Whatever you want to think of him politically, he is a person of great substance and quality,” he says in a “Weltwoche” video. It’s worth taking a look for yourself.
The core of the conference was a discussion with an audience, during which Roger Köppel was also allowed to ask a question. “Grüezi,” said the Russian President after the Swiss’s introduction, making the room laugh.
Köppel started with a hymn of praise: “I have never seen a leader of your stature communicate at this level for so long, so late in the evening. Congratulations, that’s fantastic.”
He then continued that he wanted to “challenge” Putin: “I think you are neglecting communication with the general public in Western Europe.” Köppel’s criticism of Putin was aimed at the fact that he communicated incorrectly and had thus become an attractive figure in the West. He did not address Ukraine.
Finally, Köppel placed an interview request: “Would you be willing to give interviews to independent journalists without naming names?” Laughter again in the hall.
Putin responded lavishly. In response to Köppel’s question, he said that he did not think it was appropriate to address directly the citizens of those countries “whose leadership fundamentally ostracizes us and is not prepared to hear our arguments.” He is also basically open to Western journalists and is in contact with US presenter Tucker Carlson.
“Weltwoche” had repeatedly sympathized with Putin in the past. At the beginning of the year, Putin graced the cover of the magazine with the title “The Misunderstood”. The Aargauer Zeitung speaks of a “Putin-friendly course” that Köppel is taking with his newspaper. In Moscow he “begged for an interview”. Criticism of Köppel’s appearance was also voiced on Platform X. It’s an “unbelievable ingratiation with a war criminal,” they say.
In the readers’ comments to “Weltwoche”, Köppel received applause, but there were also critical voices. “It would have been brave if Köppel had asked Putin whether he knew anything about the whereabouts of the thousands of kidnapped children in Ukraine,” writes one commentator. An inquiry to Roger Köppel is still pending.
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