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Putin goes online
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RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin answered questions live on the Internet on Tuesday, defending policies on reform, press freedom and revealing his preferences in music, literature and leisure.
Putin praised the Internet while fielding some of the 16,000 questions submitted to the BBC and web services www.gazeta.ru and Kremlin-funded www.strana.ru, but he said he was no specialist.
Still, Tuesday's venture into cyberspace marked a technological step forward from Putin's predecessor. Yeltsin had no computer in his office and said last December that he had only tried the Internet once because the screen hurt his eyes.
Putin, who took office when his predecessor Boris Yeltsin resigned on New Year's Eve 1999, pledged to work to raise Russians' living standards and said there should be no doubt about his commitment to protect democracy and market reforms.
"I am sure the state does not have an alternative to democratic development and market economy," he said. "As long as I remain head of state, we will adhere to democratic principles of development, we will develop the political structure of society and will develop civil society."
Press freedom
He dismissed concerns from a US user that the Kremlin was trying to "suppress reasonable criticism" -- an allusion to legal moves against the independent Media-Most group's founder Vladimir Gusinsky, now facing extradition from Spain. Liberals see the case as a test of Putin's commitment to a free press.
He vowed press freedoms would be observed, but said that business interests who had acquired industries or media outlets on shaky grounds would be obliged to obey laws.
"I suspect that some people want to live according to the old rules and fish in murky waters. This will not happen. Nor will there be the destruction of democratic institutions."
Personal life and tastes
Putin said he enjoyed light classical music, particularly Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and had read Russian classics widely such as Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in addition to Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas. He also takes a liking for Romy Schneider, the late Austrian-born actress who specialized in sentimental dramas.
He described his working day as "quite heavy", generally starting with a half hour of exercise and a swim, with a 90-minute break for more sports activity during the day. And he finishes working late at around 10 o'clock or 11, midnight.
But the president found himself on the defensive over what a St Petersburg user said was the "patriarchal" way in which his wife Lyudmila was absent from many public appearances and trips---unlike her predecessors Raisa Gorbachev and Naina Yeltsin.
"This is just the way we operate, whether you like it or not. The people elected me, not my wife," he said.
"I cannot issue instructions. Our relationship is such that if I started to do that the result would be quite the opposite. She carries herself in the way she feels is necessary."(SD-Agencies)
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