Vladimir Putin’s hidden talents

MANY world leaders attended China’s Belt and Road Forum in Beijing (北京) on 14 May, including Russian (俄羅斯的) President Vladimir Putin. But it was not Putin’s politics that caught the attention of journalists. As Putin passed by a room with a piano on his way to a talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), he sat down at the piano and played two Russian songs.One of the songs was Evening Song, by

Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi, and the other was Moscow Windows, by Tikhon Khrennikov. Evening Song was written in 1957, and many people from St Petersburg, the hometown of Putin, consider the song the city’s anthem. Putin has played the piano in public before, the last time in 2010, at a charity concert with a jazz band. He played and sang Blueberry Hill to many people’s surprise.

(This article is published on Goodies on 24 May 2017)