An other Poutin : orthodoxe, accomplished sportsman and faithful friend

MOSCOW, March 19 (AFP) - Vladimir Poutin, Russian president by interim, cultivated his image of an iron man before the presidential one of March 26, but he also knew to be shown under one more human way, even unexpected: large sportsman, faithful in friendship and even orthodoxe convinced.

Considered by some as an unrepentant KGBiste, after more than 16 years spent in the secret service, Vladimir Poutin revealed in a book of discussions with journalists that his mother, orthodoxe practising, had made it baptize at his birth.

" Four years before the death of my mother, I went to Israel. Mom then gave me my cross of baptism to make it bless on the tomb of Christ. I took it and not to lose it, I put it around the neck. Since, I did not remove it ", he told.

At the time of taking his functions of president per interim, after the resignation of Boris Eltsine, Vladimir Poutin asked the Patriarch Alexis II to bless him and the head of orthodoxe Russian was present at the Kremlin for the power hands change.

Vladimir Poutin became very monk after having saved his two daughters from a fire three years ago, according to sources' close to the president by interim quoted by the press.

His wife Lioudmila, whom he knew at the time of his studies at the University of Leningrad (today Saint-Pétersbourg) and their daughters, Macha and Katia, 14 and 13 years, until now remained in the shade.

Mrs. Poutin however accompanied the president by interim to pass to her sides the night of New Year's day with Russian soldiers in Tchétchénie. She shares with him a passion for skiing.

Russian television insisted on several occasions on the sporting prowesses of Vladimir Poutin, showing him in ski combination descending the slopes or kimono wearing, carrying out catches of judo and fixing spectacular immobilizations.

Displayed partisan of a healthy life, Poutin practises since his adolescence the judo and the sambo (a Russian sport of self-defence). He runs as often as possible, does not smoke and drinks very little, ensured the AFP one of his collaborators.

His good health, which contrasts with that of its predecessor, enables him to walk to Siberia by -18 degrees without chapka, obliging the local leaders somewhat surprised to follow his example.

Except the sport, Vladimir Poutin is known to devote his leisures reading books of history and listening to classical music.

Mr. Poutin, whose public speeches appear often dry and severe, appears into private an interlocutor equipped with cold and very attentive humour, according to several testimonys. He speaks well German, after nearly 5 years spent to East Germany for the KGB, and manages in English.

Poutin, that some regard as a " iron man ", finally showed at which point the friendly relations counted for him: last February, it could not retain its tears at the burial of Anatoli Sobtchak, the former mayor of Saint-Pétersbourg with whom he had worked during five years after having left the KGB in 1991.

Vladimir Poutin, who gives up readily the costume-tie for a pullover and a parka, even let himself being filmed at his home, cherishing the poodle which his daughters imposed to him in the house, to accentuate his image of good father in family.

nm/md eaf - traduction Théodore Aslamatzidis

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