State Counsellor of the Republiс of Tatarstan

28 January 2004, Wednesday

What can antagonise you of a person when you meet him or she for the first time?

Garrulity.

What makes no use to ask you about?

To slander anyone.

Do you regret not having done anything?

I could not learn smoking. Everybody could exhale the smoke through the nose, and I continuously failed… It was so vexing!

What book would you not allow to read to your children?

Written by V. Zhirinovsky.

What trait of today’s youth delights you?

Unconstraint.

Food you do not like, clothes you do not like?

Oysters. Hat.

What is more difficult for you – to accept thanks or apology?

Apology.

What could you do by hands for sale?

I would cultivate early potatoes.

How much money do you need in your pocket to feel comfortable?

When a child, I felt comfortable buying some spice-cakes, when a student – with money for a ticket for travelling home. If my wife had enough money till a next salary – I was proud of myself as the head of family. Now I cannot bind feeling of comfort with money.

Do you lack time for anything every day?

For newspapers.

Ideal of the woman?

Kindness.

Ideal of the man?

Intelligence.

The strongest impression of the childhood?

When we secretly milked goats who lost their flock and drank their milk.

Element of comfort you cannot do without?

Television.

Your everyday dream?

House on a high river bank.

What are you dissatisfied with in yourself?

Not speaking foreign languages.

What traits of the Soviet period do you miss?

Strong state.

Three characteristics of today’s Russia.

Feeling of freedom. Capability of self-actualisation. Lack of proprietors.

If you had an opportunity to call to the past, who and why would you call?

N.S. Hruscshev: did he believe in success of the reforms he started without a radical collapse of the system?

What are you afraid of more than a death?

Disgrace.

What charity would you spent your money on with pleasure?

For the last ten years I have been transferring a part of my salary to old people’s homes.

What irritates you in people most of all?

Stupidity, undue familiarity.

Which of deadly sins (arrogance, envy, greed, gluttony, lust, dejection, anger) seems to you not so deadly?

Anger.

30. What are you ready to overpay without regret?

Good work.

31. Problems in Russia to be decided without delay.

Everything connected with creation of a civil society.

ЧИТАТЬ ВСЕ ПУБЛИКАЦИИ

Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev: could not learn smoking – it was so vexing!