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SOCHI, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin can strike fear into the heart of his toughest adversaries, but today he showed that, sometimes, even steely-eyed former spies just feel like a friendly chat.
Arriving for a briefing by ministers in the Black Sea city of Sochi, he chose to sit not among his officials but headed for the fourth row of the auditorium and sat down between two foreign journalists.
Putin then paid scant attention to the presentations given for his benefit by officials, instead striking up conversations first with the neighbour on his left, then the one on his right.
"He is a very friendly kind of man," said Joachim Bartz, a correspondent for Germany's ZDF television station with whom Putin spent the longest time chatting. "It was clear that ... he is in a good mood."
The exchange, arranged in advance by Kremlin aides, was remarkable because Putin has a wary relationship with the foreign press. Ranks of bodyguards and zealous press officers usually make sure journalists keep a respectful distance.
Economy Minister German Gref appeared flustered when he looked up from his presentation, on Sochi's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, to see his boss deep in conversation with his neighbours.
Earlier this month, Putin was in his more familiar mode as a tough-talking statesman, criticising Washington's foreign policy in a speech in Munich that prompted some US officials to talk of a new Cold War.
But in Sochi, where he was promoting the Olympic bid, Putin was showing a more relaxed side.
Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had wanted to talk to the German journalist after discovering earlier in the day he was from Dresden.
Putin served in the German city as a KGB spy in the dying days of the Cold War and is a fluent German speaker. He has spoken in the past of his fond memories of his time there.
"The journalist's mother worked in the kindergarten (in Dresden) where the Putins sent their children," said Peskov.
Ed Hula, editor of influential sports news service "Around the Rings," who was seated to the other side of Putin, said the Russian president exchanged a few words with him in English.
"I could tell it was very limited but (it was) enough to express the big idea," Hula told Reuters.
Putin has shown fleeting glimpses of a more human side before. Some commentators say it is part of a calculated campaign by Kremlin spin doctors to soften Putin's spiky image.
Others though, say he is loosening up because he is scheduled to step down next year when his final terms ends, and he feels the burden of office lifting.
- REUTERS
