‘Truly evil’ Vladimir Putin uncovered as ‘real-life Bond villain’ by former PM
A former prime minister has warned that Vladimir Putin is a ‘truly evil’ and manipulative ‘real-life Bond villain’ who deliberately inflicts global harm
Vladimir Putin has been branded a ‘real-life Bond villain’ by a former world leader(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Vladimir Putin has been branded a “real-life Bond villain” and “truly evil” by a former world leader who used to go toe-to-toe with the Kremlin tyrant. Stephen Harper, who served as Canada’s prime minister between 2006 and 2015, lifted the lid on his tense showdowns with the Russian warmonger in a new article.
Harper warned Western leaders never to underestimate the despot, describing him as a cold, calculating mastermind who knows exactly how to prey on other people’s weaknesses.
Writing about his dealings with the dictator for Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Harper said: “At no time did I think Mr Putin should be dismissed or taken lightly.
Stephen Harper has lifted the lid on his tense showdowns with Vladimir Putin(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“He is a formidable and, in many ways, very impressive individual. He is intelligent and extraordinarily disciplined. He comes to international meetings extremely well briefed and knowing exactly what he wants.
“He is also very manipulative, no doubt part of his background as an intelligence officer, appearing soft-spoken, almost shy, while being quick to spot weaknesses in others and exploit them. I suppose it was that veneer that I was most eager to puncture.”
Harper admitted that years after walking away from front-line politics, people still obsess over what the Russian president is actually like behind closed doors.
Harper repeatedly sounded the alarm that Putin was a danger to international security
He said: “Of all the famous people I have met, I still get asked more about Mr Putin than about any other. I guess it is because he is a real-life Bond villain. And make no mistake, for all his strong attributes, he is a truly evil individual.
“He has knowingly and deliberately inflicted great and avoidable harm in his country and around the world. As it turned out, I would soon have more to say on that.”
The two heavyweights frequently clashed on the world stage, with Harper repeatedly sounding the alarm that Putin was a danger to international security.
Relations completely imploded in 2014 following Russia’s illegal land grab of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, prompting Canada to hit the Kremlin with crushing financial sanctions.
Later that same year, the frosty feud reached boiling point when the pair crossed paths at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.
It was there that Harper famously confronted the tyrant directly and bluntly ordered him to “get out of Ukraine”.
