Russia's Putin and Sweden's Lofven exchange poetry jokes

Record ID: 1407519

  • Title: Russia's Putin and Sweden's Lofven exchange poetry jokes
  • Date: 9th April 2019
  • Summary: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (APRIL 9, 2019) (RUSSIAN POOL) SWEDEN'S PRIME MINISTER STEFAN LOFVEN COMING UP TO MICROPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDEN'S PRIME MINISTER, STEFAN LOFVEN, SAYING (STARTS OVER AUDIENCE LISTENING): "It's a city with deep historical significance for Swedish-Russian relations reminding us of peaceful and (BACK TO LOFVEN SPEAKING) less than peaceful times in our long and shared history, or to borrow from the great (Russian poet Alexander) Pushkin and I quote "From here the Sweede is ill-protected: a city on this site, to thwart his purposes, shall be erected". (CONTINUES OVER VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE LAUGHING AND APPLAUDING) Today St. Petersburg provides (BACK TO LOFVEN SPEAKING) an excellent venue for dialogue on the Arctic." PLENARY SESSION IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "I want to recall another poem, 'Poltava', "Hurrah! The Swedes, at last, are broken". It is a verse about the Poltava battle. Nowadays we often remember this when we watch the game of the Russian national football team and Swedish ice hockey team, and unfortunately for our fans we can not cite (CONTINUES OVER PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS LAUGHING) these lines of the poem very often". AUDIENCE AT PLENARY SESSION PUTIN SHAKING HANDS WITH MEMBERS OF SWEDISH DELEGATION BEFORE BILATERAL TALKS PUTIN SHAKING HANDS WITH TRANSLATOR, DELEGATIONS TAKING THEIR SEATS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT, VLADIMIR PUTIN, SAYING: "(Our) relationships develop despite any difficulties. (PAUSES FOR TRANSLATION) Last year, our commodity turnover grew by more than 30 percent, by 32 percent. (PAUSES FOR TRANSLATION) Approximately five billion (US dollar) investments from our Swedish friends, our friends from Sweden, are invested into Russian economy." BILATERAL TALKS IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDEN'S PRIME MINISTER, STEFAN LOFVEN, SAYING: "And I would like also to continue political discussions because we need that, obviously, and on some issues we have common views on some we have different views, but those also need to be discussed". BILATERAL TALKS IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 23rd April 2019 19:03
  • Keywords: Russia Arctic Russian President Vladimir Putin Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven
  • Location: ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
  • City: ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001A9QP16V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Swedish Prime Minister and Russian President got engaged in a poetic battle while discussing the controversies in the relationship between the two countries on Tuesday (April 9) at the International Arctic forum in the Russian city of St Petersburg aimed to attracting foreign investments into Arctic region.
    Vladimir Putin and Stefan Lofven exchanged quotes by prominent Russian poet Alexander Pushkin describing the countries' history of battles and territorial disputes at the plenary session of the forum.
    Lofven started his speech by quoting the Bronze Horseman poem, explaining why the Russian Tzar Peter I decided to build the city of St. Petersburg in the first place. "From here the Sweede is ill-protected: a city on this site, to thwart his purposes, shall be erected," the Swedish minister quoted.
    Putin, in his turn, remembered a line from the Poltava poem: "Hurrah! The Swedes, at last, are broken", - adding that nowadays Russia could not really boast about its victory over the Swedes neither in football nor in hockey.
    After the poetry session, Russian President and Swedish Prime Minister discussed the current trends in bilateral diplomatic relations. During the talks Lofven emphasized that Russia and Sweden still haven't reached an agreement on certain political issues.
    Most of the European countries imposed sanctions against Russia since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
    For the continent, the move and the following war in Ukraine four years ago was seen as a wake-up call, but for such countries as Sweden it became even a potentially existential threat that heated the political situation in the region.
    Since the events, Sweden has dramatically increased military ties to the NATO alliance and has decided to strengthen Sweden's total defense.
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