Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Reuters Managing Editor Paul Ingrassia during a meeting with foreign news agency chiefs at the Boris Yeltsin presidential library in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 19, 2015. Reuters/Stringer
Reuters: After midnight in the library, Putin sets out his world view
It was two minutes before midnight when Russian President Vladimir Putin finally entered the meeting room in the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, more than three hours late, to be interviewed by a dozen exhausted journalists.
His retinue seemed wearily accustomed to the late-night regimen, but Putin himself - after back-to-back meetings, a speech and an on-stage interview at his annual business conference here in his home town of St Petersburg - was fresh, fulsome and feisty.
"We won in a free fight and we are going to host the World Cup," he declared, slapping away suggestions that Russia cheated with scandal-plagued FIFA to snare the 2018 competition. "That's it!"
As for whether Russia can't, or simply won't, control its border to stop heavy weapons flowing to separatists in Ukraine: "These people got weapons with which to defend themselves. They got them in various ways."
Update: Putin not as cold as he seems -- FOX News/EFE
WNU Editor: Three hours late to a news conference .... and it starts at midnight lasting until 1:30 in the morning .... yup .... that is Putin's style.
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