Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of six countries in Beijing

On October 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Beijing with the leaders of six countries, among whom was literally hiding a surprise in the form of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. In the night, says a special correspondent for Kommersant Andrey Kolesnikov, “One Belt, One Road” began, of course, to bifurcate in the eyes of the participants in these meetings.

The countryside state residence “Diaoyutai” (translated as “Fishing Terrace”, and then it will become clear why), which is more than 800 years old, is now empty most of the time (but this was not the case for all 800 years. For the first 400, it was mercilessly exploited by Chinese emperors, in sequence). Mr. Putin stops here from time to time. 430 thousand sq. m – can this be understood: easy. It’s always been like this here. In 1999, the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, explained to his Chinese colleagues here:

— Yesterday Clinton (US President Bill Clinton.— A.K.) allowed himself to put pressure on Russia! For a second, for a minute, for half a minute, he forgot what Russia is! That Russia owns nuclear weapons!

I listened to this speech by the first Russian president and thought about how it would sound from the lips of the second. About the same in meaning, although not so significantly menacing.

— He (Bill Clinton.— A.K.) forgot about that! So I want to tell Clinton, let him not forget what kind of world he lives in! It was not and will not be that he alone dictated to the whole world how to live, work and work, how to rest!

And what, quite the Munich speech eight years before it.

– No and no again! – said Boris Yeltsin. – A multipolar world is the basis for everything!

Wow, that’s when, from whose lips and where it was heard for the first time. It turns out that everything else is secondary.

— Just like we agreed with Jiang Zemin (chairman of the People’s Republic of China.— A.K.), – finished Boris Yeltsin, – we will dictate to the world how to live, and not he alone!

The idea, first of all, alas, is to dictate.

24 years later, in the same office, Vladimir Putin met with Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong.

Vladimir Putin, in the best traditions of the times that Boris Yeltsin dreamed of ending, said:

— At the beginning, I ask you to immediately convey my best wishes to the General Secretary (of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.— A.K.). A very important moment that symbolizes our relations is the opening of the monument to Comrade Ho Chi Minh (the first President of the Republic of Vietnam.— “Kommersant”) in St. Petersburg.

Indeed, it is difficult to overestimate.

— Thank you for the warm greetings that you conveyed through Comrade Medvedev (Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.— “Kommersant”), Comrade Lebedev (Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev.— “Kommersant”) and most recently – Comrade Volodin (Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin.— “Kommersant”), – Comrade Vo Van Thuong thanked Comrade Putin. – Please accept great greetings from the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong and other top leaders of Vietnam! And this general camaraderie made my soul, honestly, lighter.

Although in reality everything is not so easy and simple.

After the start of the special military operation, Vietnam took a break in relations with Russia, apparently trying to understand what would happen next and even, perhaps, who would take it.

And so far, apparently, Vietnam has no final decision on this matter. Yes, except for him.

And the words spoken by the President of Vietnam were good. There are no better words than these:

— In the hearts of many Vietnamese people and in my heart, the image of the beautiful landscape of Russia, the image of the Russian character, the image of the kind Russian people are always well preserved. We received and felt all this when we visited Russia and studied in Russia! – said comrade Vo Van Thuong.

Here it is, an unexpected transformation of the ambiguous concept of “good Russian”. Let the Vietnamese comrades talk about what it is, first of all (even though their experience of living in Russia, according to their concepts, forces them to subject this very concept to a terrible and merciless test).

The President of Vietnam talked and talked: about how he consulted with Comrade Lebedev, and again about how “the President of United Russia, Comrade Medvedev” visited him. And how “just yesterday Comrade Volodin visited us.”

And now only Comrade Putin remains to visit Vietnam. Vo Van Thuong invited him. And it will happen. But, apparently, after the presidential elections in March.

Suddenly it turned out that Vladimir Putin had an unplanned, off-script meeting. It remained to understand with whom. Everyone here flatly refused to announce it.

And I must admit, I was very surprised when I saw that behind the glass doors next to Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was heading to the chairs.

To be honest, I thought that this meeting would certainly not be advertised further, especially since only the president’s personal videographer and personal photographer were present. And I was already preparing to write at the end of this note something like: “Only one meeting that day was not for video and not for photos. With Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary. Well, I’ll keep silent too.”

But no, on the birthday of the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, the presidential press service gave a gift to those around him (hardly to the Prime Minister of Hungary, Mr. Orban): they began the meeting without cuts and immediately.

It would seem that Viktor Orban will show himself as a man who simply has nothing to lose, and most importantly, will have nothing to say to his colleagues in the European Union upon returning from China. But in fact, the Hungarian prime minister turned out to be extremely careful.

“I counted,” he said. “Since 2009, we are meeting with you for the 13th time!” There have been difficult meetings, but never as difficult as this one. We have never been in such a difficult situation before.

It really wasn’t easy for him. It was necessary to say everything and remain silent about everything, at least in front of journalists, and at least try.

“Hungary,” said Viktor Orban, “never wanted to confront Russia, quite the opposite. However, due to a military operation (no, I didn’t say “war.”— A.K.) and sanctions, our relations, unfortunately, suffered a lot, and this deeply affected the fabric of what you and I built together… We are trying to save everything we can from our bilateral contacts!

Thus, the Hungarian prime minister did not publicly condemn the sanctions, and everything he said was the height of deliberation. But still, he wanted to make something clear:

– We intend to support cooperation as long as possible… I want to thank Rosatom… I want to thank Gazprom for fulfilling its obligations under the agreement (and how he hugged with the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller before the meeting! — A.K.). Therefore, we managed to save a lot of what we had previously achieved. No one likes it when the results of his work, once achieved, are nullified due to reasons for which he is not at all to blame!

The last phrase was absolutely exquisite.

But in fact, the Prime Minister of Thailand, Settha Thaweesin, captivated everyone, and this is already a commonplace. He appeared at a meeting with Vladimir Putin wearing pink socks and a pink tie.

Moreover, he understood what he was doing, because it was clear how, having sat down in a chair, the first thing he did was pull up what people would pay attention to, that is, his knee socks. And for the next quarter of an hour, no one in the room looked at anything else. The knee socks blinded my eyes. This obviously had some meaning.

Among representatives of a certain specialty, this is called, as we have heard, switching attention to an unsuitable object. At the same time, the Prime Minister of Thailand immediately began talking about what only made sense. He told how he expects Vladimir Putin to open the agricultural market to Thailand. That is, we are talking about rice and sugar. He turned out to be a man of substance.

Next in line was the President of Mongolia, Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh. At this point I realized that everything was serious: the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, joined the Russian negotiators.

And the President of Mongolia said that he is ready to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Victory on May 9, 2025 with a parade on Red Square together with Vladimir Putin.

However, no one else has any particular doubts: he will command the parade on May 9. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, as Mr. Peskov said that morning, does not and cannot have any competitors. Apparently, there is no need for a campaign. But it will.

Around midnight local time, Mr. Putin met with the President of Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith (yes, during the break he also went to the official meeting ceremony of the participants of the Third International Forum “One Belt, One Road”, where the participants of the bilateral meetings of that day actually gathered).

The strangeness was already in the way they walked: talking sweetly and laughing about something.

— When you studied in Leningrad, then I studied too. “You and I studied in Leningrad at the same time,” Mr. Putin explained to his colleague.

Yeah, the Laotian turned out to be ours.

He spoke Russian. It was without exaggeration touching.

— I wanted to repeat the Russian language! Thank you for being very busy! – said Thonglun Sisulit. – The opportunity to meet with you is very good! I am very unhappy that I could not participate in the forum in Vladivostok. But he was in Cuba. My Pani Yathotu (Vice President of Laos.— A.K.) told me in great detail… I haven’t met you for a very long time. In two hundred and seventeen in Singapore…

Well, nothing could be ruled out.

– Exactly, exactly! – Mr. Putin recalled.

Or he thought he remembered.

“It was very short, but the fact that you stood and talked to me is very popular in Laos!” They said: what language do they speak?! — the President of Laos rejoiced.

That day, the Laotians discovered a new dimension of their president’s talents.

— People in Laos are very touched! – explained his president. – Today I would first like to listen to your opinion on everything!

Mr. Putin slowly began to explain.

In the night, the acting Prime Minister of Pakistan Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar appeared in the doorway.

Andrey Kolesnikov, Beijing