Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi cracked jokes about hanging on to power to well past 100, during a relaxed meeting in Russia, TV pictures have showed.
Mr Berlusconi, 73, was visiting Mr Putin at his residence at Novo Ogarevo, near Moscow. The NTV station reported that during a forum at Iaroslavl, north of the capital, Mr Berlusconi had said on Friday he was going to finance research into dramatically extending life expectancy.
“So we’re going to live until 120?” Mr Putin asked him with a smile, as the two men relaxed in armchairs. “It seems so, yes,” Mr Berlusconi replied, according to the Russian-language translation offered by NTV.
“But that would be an average age, mind. I’m told that leaders will have an even longer life,” he added. “So we will be Prime Ministers until we are 120 years old?” Mr Putin, 57, whose country is near the bottom of the world’s life expectancy league, quipped. Mr Berlusconi said he thought not, because that involved a lot of work and they were getting tired. He went on to complain that he had not had a day of holiday that year, before commiserating with Mr Putin over the event-packed years that he had endured.
Mr Putin, who has not ruled out making a bid to return to the Russian presidency, has for years had good relations with Mr Berlusconi, who has made several private visits to Russia and has praised Mr Putin’s leadership. —