An excerpt from an archival interview with the first President of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who shared his memories of working with Vladimir Putin, appeared on the web. He named the main quality of the President of Russia, which is the desire to get to the bottom of everything. Because of this, the politician admitted, one agreement had to be rephrased twice.
Two years ago, the President of the World Chess Federation, the former head of the Republic of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, gave an interview to Evgeny Dodolev. Ilyumzhinov, among other things, spoke about his acquaintance with Vladimir Putin in the late 1990s, when the latter was not yet president of Russia.
Ilyumzhinov honestly admitted that at that moment he did not have the feeling that Putin could lead the country. But he made a very strong impression. “I recall an energetic, young leader. We immediately got down to business,” the politician recalls.
According to Ilyumzhinov, Putin has one very important quality: "He always gets to the point, be it a chess tournament or the Republic of Kalmykia... He is very scrupulous."
The agreement, which we were preparing, was rephrased twice. Vladimir Vladimirovich said: "We are not signing it for show, you and Sobchak may sign and go away, but there should be concrete benefits under this agreement."