Margarita Simonyan sat down for a lengthy interview with Professor Zhang Weiwei, who hosts ‘China Now’ on Shanghai’s Dragon TV
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main trait is his mercifulness, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has said.
Simonyan was asked to expand on the Russian leader’s personality during an extensive interview with Zhang Weiwei, a professor of international relations at Fudan University and host of ‘China Now’ on Shanghai’s Dragon TV, which aired on Wednesday.
The RT Editor-in-Chief replied by saying that she “could go on about that for a very long time,” but, instead, decided to focus on a single trait that she considers “the most important in a person.”
Putin “is a man in whom this trait… is incredibly well developed, and it’s at a level, I think, close to the high standards bequeathed to us by Jesus Christ. This trait is called mercifulness,” she said.
“It may not seem so from the outside because his manner of speech, his confidence and even the boldness of his behavior on the international stage may lead one to assume… that he is maybe even a harsh person… but that’s not the case,” Simonyan argued.
Because of Putin’s compassionate and merciful nature, she is proud to consider herself “a part of his team,” she added.
Simonyan and Zhang touched upon many other issues during their conversation, including the clampdown on RT in the West, China’s technological developments, the dangers presented by AI, Russia’s rocky history in the 1990s and the lessons the RT Editor-in-Chief learned while studying in the US.
