Andrei Kolesnikov about Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Chad’s transitional president Mahamat Idriss Deby

On January 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin received the transitional president of the Republic of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby, in the Kremlin, tried to help him master the headphones and listened to condolences over the death of the Russian Il-76. With details – a special correspondent of Kommersant Andrey Kolesnikov.

For some reason, the same story is repeated with African leaders in the Kremlin Representative Office. Trying to put on headphones for simultaneous interpretation while sitting down in a chair invariably ends in disaster. Everything seems to be simple there. And even Mr. Putin shows how. But no – it turns into a test that you can pass through or even not pass.

The young transitional president of the Republic of Chad, Mahamat Idriss Déby, accepted this challenge without reservation. He didn’t succeed the first time, and then, when Vladimir Putin showed how it’s done (put it on the ear, and that’s all, that was the meaning of the gesture), and the second time. The whole point is that, as one could understand, Mahamat Idris Debi for some reason, apparently from tension, almost perpendicularly deflected the earpiece of the headphones, which really should have just been put on the ear. How will you put it on if you’ve already turned it down and it’s almost horizontal? The question is why he tilted it. And then that she was the only one moving in this entire structure. And how was it possible not to push to failure?

In general, next time the protocol service will apparently focus on ensuring that Vladimir Putin’s interlocutor, while still in the waiting room, trains and tries on the same headphones, because the next African president should not look the way the transitional president of the Republic of Chad looked in the Kremlin Representative Office Mahamat Idriss Deby January 24, 2024.

The President of Chad is exquisitely handsome, just as Arab youths are handsome when they are just filled with the juice of life that is now playing within them.

He is, as you know, the son of his father, who died in April 2021 at the hands of the rebels, with whom the regular army had been fighting in the north of the country for several years. And the father of his son had just been elected to a sixth presidential term and decided to visit the positions where the civil war was going on. Indeed, why not? General Azem Bermandoa Aguna, Chadian army spokesman, said at the time that “Deby breathed his last defending the sovereignty of the nation on the battlefield.”

“And you know,” Vladimir Putin said to his colleague, “we followed with great concern what was happening in terms of the fight against terrorist attacks, and what happened to your father.” We mourn (since April 2021.— A.K.). I would like to once again express my condolences.

It just hasn’t happened yet.

“Nevertheless, we are glad that you managed to hold a referendum on the constitution,” Vladimir Putin assured.

Well, as you know, this always lifts the Russian President’s spirits.

“I am confident that the general elections will be held at a high level in the near future,” added Mr. Putin. “We are glad that you have managed and are managing to stabilize the situation in the country.” We will do our best to support this.

There, behind the Russian negotiators in the first row, sat Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who obviously treated such words as an order from the Supreme Commander.

Chad’s transitional president was not only handsome as a god, but also sweet-voiced like him, and he knew who to thank for it:

“First, I would like to express my gratitude to God, who allowed me to come to Russia on this visit,” said Mahamat Idris Deby. “I would also like to thank you for the invitation to come.”

That is, this was an initiative of the Russian side, and this is also understandable: we are developing success in the African direction, we are not standing still.

“This visit is historic,” it seems that it was not yesterday that Mahamat Idriss Deby learned to pronounce the right words in time. “Chad and Russia have a very long and long-standing relationship. The last visit of the President of the State of Chad was in 1968, when the President of Chad was Mr. François Tombalbaye. We hope that this visit will allow us to strengthen our bilateral relations and strengthen our relations in all directions.

And, I would like to think, now visa-free travel will be provided to Lake Chad, where, hopefully, the exquisite giraffe still roams (and it’s time to make sure).

Unexpectedly, Mahamat Idriss Deby showed skills of actual knowledge:

— I heard about a plane crash (Il-76 over the Belgorod region, in which there were 74 people.— A.K.) and would like, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people, to express my sincere condolences in connection with the death of Russian soldiers.

As they say, not a single muscle on the Russian president’s face moved, although he could have. After all, Mahamat Idris Debi behaved without meaning to, like a giraffe in a china shop: he did not yet know that almost all the passengers on this flight were Ukrainian prisoners, and not Russian soldiers, and this is a delicate matter that does not require immediate and unambiguous condolences.

But Mr. Putin knew, so he didn’t even thank his colleague with a nod. Don’t bring clarity right now, on the fly. Yes, it’s not, it’s still final, it seems.

“I come from a friendly, brotherly country, a sovereign country,” said Mahamat Idris Deby at the end of his bright public speech, “which wants to strengthen relations with a friendly country!”

Yes, it looks like plus one.