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How could we not be happy at the news that there is at least one person in the world who is eager to embark on a career in print media?  MosNews reports: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has written a column for a Russian magazine for the first time in his career, Russian website Lenta.ru ...

How could we not be happy at the news that there is at least one person in the world who is eager to embark on a career in print media?  MosNews reports:

How could we not be happy at the news that there is at least one person in the world who is eager to embark on a career in print media?  MosNews reports:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has written a column for a Russian magazine for the first time in his career, Russian website Lenta.ru reports. His article entitled “Why it’s hard to dismiss employees” will feature in the Russian magazine Pioneer on May 28. Vladimir Putin will give the readers the benefit of his dismissal experience.

According to the article, Putin is always deals with leadership issues personally.

“Sometimes it seems that someone must be fired. But I promise you that it is not so. I deal with problems personally unlike Soviet leaders did. Usually I call that person to my cabinet and tell him face to face that I have concrete complaints against him. In that case the person may argue with my decision, he may talk me round.” Vladimir Putin wrote in his article.

So the eight horrible years of intimidation that many Russian journalists suffered under Putin’s tenure were just a way for him to deal with competition?

But I do agree: having a column in a glossy Russian magazine is much classier that wasting one’s time on all this frivolous blogging that Putin’s formal boss, Dmitry Medvedev,  has been doing. Even here Putin shows his maturity!

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com

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