Putin pioneers as a columnist

Russian PM Vladimir Putin has tried his hand at writing. For the first time in his career, the politician wrote a column for Russia’s media.

According to Ria Novosti news agency, Putin’s essay, entitled “Why is it hard to fire a person?”, is set to come out on May 29 in the magazine “Russian Pioneer” in which Putin shares his experience on the matter.

“Sometimes it might seem from the outside that a person should be fired straight away. But I can assure you that things are not always what they seem to be. You should never disgrace someone’s name behind their back, fire or get rid of someone only because somebody else told you something about this person… What I understand perfectly well is that a complicated political strife is involved in such cases,” Putin wrote.

Putin has revealed his way of dealing with employees on the verge of dismissal. “I usually call a person to my office and tell them face-to-face that I’ve got such-and-such claims. If you find them wrong, then please, speak out, argue with me.”

According to the Russian PM, a dismissal doesn’t necessarily solve the problem.

“I realize that people who replace those who were fired will be the same as their predecessors. Some will tackle problems worse, some better, others will be good for nothing at all. Eventually, you’ll have what you had before, or even worse,” Putin writes in Russian Pioneer.

The magazine was launched in February 2008. Its editor-in-chief is the Kremlin press pool correspondent of “Kommersant” daily Andrey Kolesnikov.

The journalist told Ria Novosti that some time ago the editorial staff of Russian Pioneer asked Putin to write a column for the magazine, and he agreed.

Putin has previously tried his hand in journalism only in western media. In 2006 he wrote an article for London’s daily The Financial Times, entitled “Europe has nothing to fear from Russia’s aspirations”.