GRILLED (OVER) CHEESE

Putin Derails Press Conference With Bizarre Anecdote

The point of confusion with a business owner was an apparent dairy gift to the Russian president.

Vladimir Putin had an awkward exchange about cheese with a participant in a televised government-business forum on Thursday.

The Russian president led a gathering of government agencies and business leaders, one of whom was Stefan Duerr, the German-born founder and CEO of EkoNiva, a Russian-based agricultural holding company. EkoNiva describes itself as the country’s top raw milk producer, maintaining a herd of over 120,000 dairy cows in over 40 regions. It produces milk, butter, cream, and cheeses, as well as 75,000 tons of seeds annually.

While Duerr was speaking, Putin, 74, commented that he had once gifted him cheese.

“By the way, wasn’t it you who—after we launched the factory—sent me cheese, yes? Definitely,” he said.

But Duerr, at first, said that he hadn’t.

“You are mistaken,” he replied. “We didn’t send any yet. But we’re sending it in the immediate future.”

Putin insisted otherwise.

“No, one of the manufacturers… it was very tasty cheese," he said.

Duerr, appearing confused and flustered, suddenly changed his tune.

“Oh, exactly! Vladimir Vladimirovich. No, no. Thank you!” he said. “That was the cheese from our Voronezh factory.”

Duerr added: “I’m really glad it made it to you. Cheese from our next factory will be even better.”

Putin then recommended the product. Kremlin-controlled media outlets left out the confusing exchange between the two and led with the Russian leader’s recommendation, prompting questions about whether Putin had been mixed up about the cheese and Duerr simply played along.

EkoNiva did not immediately respond to a request for comment confirming that it had sent Putin the dairy product.

Meanwhile on Thursday, it was revealed that Putin’s war against Ukraine took another hit: the Ukrainian military said in a statement that it had damaged or destroyed six Su-34M bombers in western Russia’s Voronezh Oblast region.

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“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 said in a statement.

“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,” it added.

Each of those bombers has a price tag of about $36 million, according to open-source military intelligence platform GlobalMilitary.net.

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