Before launching the magazine, Kolesnikov was a longtime Kremlin correspondent for Kommersant newspaper. As a professional observer of the court intrigues surrounding Putin, he says, he became fascinated with the former president's seeming inability to fire people. Instead, his rivals usually entered a drawn-out descent, "although everybody knew they were doomed."
"I realized this problem of how to fire people is torturing Vladimir Putin," Kolesnikov said Thursday. And so, as he lined up contributors for his new magazine, he pitched the idea to the prime minister.
"He responded very quickly and the result was very positive," Kolesnikov said. "I can't tell you why he agreed, and I didn't ask him. I think that, in reality, he was interested in the topic. Obviously, he wants his motives to be more understandable to the public at large."
The public relations scene around Putin has always been colorful. There was the legendary time in the forests of the Far East, much reported in state news media, when Putin grabbed a gun and fired a tranquilizing dart into a lunging Siberian tiger, reportedly saving the life of a Russian television crew.
Last fall, Putin released a DVD called "Let's Learn Judo With Vladimir Putin."
In his column, Putin continues to instruct Russians, giving bosses a peek into his style of management. He gripes about the time it takes for new employees to get their bearings, and warns against getting tricked by politically motivated complaints from back-stabbing colleagues.
"In no case should a person be smeared behind his back, fired, kicked out, just because somebody told you something about him," Putin writes.
But if a dismissal is in order, the prime minister continues, it should be done face to face. "In contrast to former Soviet leaders, I always do it myself," he writes. "I usually call a person into my office and tell them directly, there are concrete complaints. If you think it's wrong, that it does not correspond to reality, then please, you may fight against it, defend yourself."
Nor, Putin adds, should a boss forget the personal touches.
"Even if I am busy, when I come to my office and there's a note that says somebody has called, even if I have only five minutes to spare, I call back," Putin writes. "I know that to call somebody on his birthday and wish him a happy birthday when he is surrounded by his family means to leave a trace in his soul."
And, oh yes -- one more word of advice from the prime minister: God is watching.
"The main thing for any leader, at any level, is to remember that a responsibility lies with him which he cannot just hand off to somebody else and relax. Never should you try to run away from resolving a problem, indulge in ignorance or assume that God is sleeping."
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megan.stack@latimes.com
