Malcolm Hoenlein's privileged take on the world's power players
But away from the news, world leaders are often more complex and multifaceted than you might assume; Putin is a good example of a person who isn’t simple to read or perhaps purely evil.
On the occasions I met him, I found Putin to be a shrewd and seemingly smart man, and unexpectedly receptive to hearing our perspectives.
Our first meeting was in 1998, when he was head of the KGB, and I traveled to Moscow to pressure the Russians to stop selling dual-use technology to Iran that could be valuable in their ballistic missile program.
It was a time of political turmoil in the twilight of President Boris Yeltsin’s term, and Viktor Chernomyrdin was prime minister — one of four officials to occupy the office between 1998 and 1999.
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