After months of setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia’s Vladimir Putin now appears to have to show his toughness by taking on his own subordinates.
The Russian leader appeared to briefly lose his composure during a meeting with government officials on Wednesday. The turning point came when Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov publicly corrected Putin after complaining that some companies had yet to win contracts to build new aircraft this year – a daunting task given the country’s reliance on many key Western imports was cut off construction.
Footage from the meeting shows Manturov quickly fired back that “investment projects” were underway, but Putin cut him off to complain that it was “taking too long”.
“Some companies don’t even have orders for 2023,” he said — only to be corrected again when Manturov told him that “all companies” have orders for the year and “the Defense Ministry has confirmed the number.”
Putin, trying to keep his cool, responded by again insisting that he was right and Manturov was wrong.
After the trade and industry minister corrected him a third time, the Russian president eventually freaked out.
“Let’s wrap this up, what’s the point of training here with you? The directors told me [there are no contracts]. Really, why are you playing the fool?” he scolded Manturov, demanding he get the job in a month and “no later”.
Russian state media appeared to use the confrontation to play up Putin’s macho image, reporting on his disparagement of Manturov but omitting the trade minister’s initial remarks that there were indeed contracts for the year.
Putin also used the meeting as an opportunity to declare that all “issues” related to his so-called “military special operation” against Ukraine would soon be resolved.
In the same breath he claimed that the country had not suffered any consequences of the war.
“None of what our enemy predicted for us has happened. And this, of course, is primarily thanks to the citizens of Russia, their composure, all our composure, willingness to take on challenges and work in difficult conditions.”