Behind the hard man image, Russian President Vladimir Putin is an ‘interesting and nice’ guy, says his Chinese security guard
Vladimir Putin may often described as a hard man, but to the security guard who accompanied him to Beijing’s military parade last week, he is an “interesting and nice” guy.
Fu Linyi, a security agent from Quanzhou in southeastern Fujian province, told the Southeast Morning Post that he thought political stars like Russian President Putin would be indifferent to security guards, but “we were quite touched when he waved to us every time he got into his car”.
Fu was among the security agents sent to Beijing for the parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war on Thursday.
Guards assigned to foreign leaders began training in the middle of August, Fu said.
“We were not allowed on the Tiananmen tower during the parade, but we were staying below, closely monitoring the safety of President Putin,” he said.
Putin, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined state leaders from countries ranging from Mongolia to Venezuela, in attending the parade. But most Western countries, including the US and UK, sent lower-level representatives, if at all.
READ MORE: Putin the Great: Russian leader shows his ‘emperor’ form at Beijing’s grand military parade
Beijing implemented its highest-level security measures for the parade, with about 850,000 volunteers deployed to assist the police in implementing measures at main roads, residential communities and shopping malls. Shope and restaurants in key areas were also forced to close.
