MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a very empathic person who can skillfully control his emotions, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Sunday.
"You know, the president is a human, like anyone of us, but he can skillfully control his emotions and it is often difficult to understand how he takes this or that news," Peskov told the Rossiya-1 television channel.
According to Peskov, the president is an empathetic person. "It is seen and it is felt," he said. "He loves people. He is very empathetic. This is what I can see every day."
Vacations in Tuva
The press secretary told about Putin’s two-day vacations in Tuva. In his words, the president cannot afford longer vacations "by default." "He discharges his duties everywhere, equally responsibly."
While on vacations, "they (Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu - TASS) went hiking in the mountains a lot, ascending to a height of 1,800 meters and spending up to five hours walking," Peskov said. "It is difficult to breath at such a height, let alone to walk that long… Just imagine an hour’s descent from a steep hill: it is an enormous muscle loading. And, you know, the president loves that land, he loves our nature."
According to Peskov, Putin was provided with reinforced protection while vacationing as those places present "wild, pristine nature." Luckily, there were no encounters with dangerous beast, he said, adding jokingly that if a bear sees the Russian leader, "it will behave properly." The president, in his words, came across mountain goats, "the most timorous animals in the world," but they did not run away and kept on grazing.
Sport
Despite his busy schedule, the president always finds time for regular workouts, spending some 90 minutes a day on sporting activities. "When he has a possibility and is not on a long trip, he swims his routine kilometer a day," Peskov noted.