Stefano Polli (Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
a Europe (meaning the European Union) that has stood up, this time, and said \u2018no\u2019 to the invader; which has stood shoulder to shoulder with Kyiv and enabled that country to avoid being crushed under the boots of an invader that is so much larger and (at least in theory) so much more powerful. <\/p>\n
A book that is a story, that is an explanation, and that is also, perhaps, a sense of nostalgia for a Russia that no longer exists \u2013 and perhaps never did \u2013 but which we Westerners have loved: the Russia of the great writers, the Russia, as Polli concludes, of the “White Nights.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stefano Polli was the only Italian journalist to meet the Russian president since the start of the invasion of Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7886,"featured_media":466770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[36078,27076,36079,36080],"class_list":["post-466784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-polli","tag-putin-en-2","tag-rubbettino","tag-rubbettino-editore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466785,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466784\/revisions\/466785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Polli-putin-186x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Polli recounts the details of Putin\u2019s manner, which he was able to observe partly because they were sitting there, directly across from each other at a table \u2013 not the enormous one where the Kremlin leader receives European heads of state, but a “normal” one at Gazprom\u2019s headquarters, which kept them a metre and a half apart. Three and a half hours spent observing someone who comes across as very self-assured, always at ease \u2013 perhaps even a great actor. Putin employs all the techniques of power, such as keeping people waiting for ten hours, only to arrive looking fresh and rested in front of a handful of journalists who, from the account, appear rather tired but increasingly motivated. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Stefano-Polli-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>