A recorded meeting shows Russian President Vladimir Putin losing his temper when arguing with his deputy prime minister.
In Putin’s first video call meeting of the year with government ministers, he sparred with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov before humiliating him by asking why he was “fooling around” instead of securing new contracts for plane construction, a video released by RIA Novosti shows.
When Manturov attempted to defend himself, Putin adopted a mocking tone before giving him one month as a deadline.
The incident started with a disagreement over whether or not new contracts had been issued for 2023; Manturov claimed they had been, and Putin claimed they had not. After going back and forth a few times, Putin got visibly annoyed and began chastising the deputy prime minister.
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“There are still no orders at some enterprises … for a long time. Too long. Enterprises must understand their prospects, orders — they must hire labor, maintain or expand production facilities, you understand? They need to understand how many military ships, how many civilian ones will be ordered. There aren’t any orders for 2023,” Putin said.
“So? When will this be sorted?” he asked.
Putin’s tantrum against Manturov went on for a full minute while the minister awkwardly looked down at his papers.
“Why are you fooling about?” Putin asked. “When will we have the contracts?”
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Manturov was put in charge of the daunting task of securing contracts for aircraft production. He must find ways around extensive Western sanctions that cut off some key aircraft components.
