Kathrine Frich
Putin refused to drop the matter.
When a live microphone is switched on, even the most carefully planned high-level meeting can take an unexpected turn.
Leaders usually stick to a tight script during public broadcasts, yet a single stray remark is sometimes enough to knock the whole room off balance.
On Thursday, a routine economic discussion turned into a test of how quickly one executive could think on his feet.
A dairy disagreement
During a televised forum connecting Kremlin officials and corporate heads via video link, Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted German-born businessman Stefan Duerr.
According to The Daily Beast, the 74-year-old leader suddenly brought up a supposed gift from Duerr, who founded the Russian agricultural giant EkoNiva.
“By the way, wasn’t it you who, after we launched the factory, sent me cheese, yes? Definitely,” Putin asked during the broadcast, as reported by The Daily Beast.
That simple question created an immediate problem. Speaking from his side of the screen, the chief executive initially told the president he had the wrong person. “You are mistaken,” Duerr replied, noting that his team had not delivered anything yet. “We didn’t send any yet. But we’re sending it in the immediate future.”
Putin refused to drop the matter. “No, one of the manufacturers… it was very tasty cheese,” the Russian leader pushed back.
Changing the story
Faced with a leader who would not budge, a visibly flustered Duerr reversed course on the spot. “Oh, exactly! Vladimir Vladimirovich. No, no. Thank you!” the executive said, suddenly crediting the dairy treat to his company’s facility in the Voronezh region. “I’m really glad it made it to you. Cheese from our next factory will be even better.”
Putin went on to praise the product publicly. State-backed Russian news channels quickly highlighted his endorsement while editing out the awkward back-and-forth, The Daily Beast noted, raising doubts over whether Putin simply misremembered and the boss decided to play along.
EkoNiva is a massive player in Russia’s food sector.
According to company figures cited by The Daily Beast, the firm runs Russia’s largest raw milk operation with more than 120,000 dairy cows across over 40 regions, alongside producing butter, cream, and 75,000 tons of seeds every year.
The company did not immediately answer a request from The Daily Beast to clarify whether the gift ever happened.
Trouble in Voronezh
While the two men debated dairy from Voronezh, the same western Russian region made headlines for a much more explosive reason on Thursday. In an official statement cited by The Daily Beast, the Ukrainian Navy announced a nighttime attack on a major airbase there.
“On the night of October 15, the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the Borisoglebsk military airfield in the Voronezh region of the Russian Federation with the Neptune missile system,” the Ukrainian Navy stated.
The military statement added: “As a result of the strike, six Su-34M bombers were hit. Technical equipment for providing flights of aviation was also hit, repeated detonations and a fire on the territory of the airfield were recorded.” According to data from the open-source defense tracker GlobalMilitary.net cited by The Daily Beast, each warplane costs roughly $36 million.
