On TV, Putin Plays the Role He Likes Best: Russia’s Mr. Fix-It
By NEIL MacFARQUHARJUNE 15, 2017
MOSCOW — In the 15th episode of his annual call-in show on Thursday, President Vladimir V. Putin was part Oprah, part King Solomon, part Avenger against an incompetent bureaucracy,
and very much a modern czar, fielding questions mostly from aggrieved Russians and promising to personally solve their problems.
Mr. Putin has used a series of recent interviews to press for better relations with the United States — based on common concerns like nuclear nonproliferation
and the future of Syria — ahead of his first anticipated meeting with President Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany, in early July.
Perhaps the question-and-answer format has become rote for Mr. Putin — he let out a deep sigh at one point — after
doing these shows almost every year he served as president or prime minister since the first broadcast in 2001.
When people living near a large Moscow garbage dump complained
that it was out of control, before promising a solution, Mr. Putin said, "I can smell through the screen." In virtually every case, he expressed wonder that the problem had not already been solved, given that the federal government had allotted money for whatever issue was raised, and he promised to address the problem — and the perpetrator — at once.
" he told one woman who said she was being made to pay to apply for relief from a flood last May
that damaged her home. that What you just said is very strange,
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said there’s no reason for the U.S. to strengthen sanctions against his country, adding
that American lawmakers would come up with anything to hold Russia back.