"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone..." It is with these words, delivered with a sigh and a wry smile, that Vladimir Putin concluded his interview with leading international news agencies, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), late on the night of Wednesday, June 18, held on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.

Asked about his "mistakes" after a quarter-century in power, the Kremlin leader did not elaborate further, even after two hours of discussion with a dozen editors-in-chief, for an interview that started more than six hours behind schedule. On both Ukraine and Iran, he mainly presented his own version of events, alternating criticism of Europeans with praise for Donald Trump. "He is a businessman who calculates everything," Putin said, noting that he had spoken with Trump by phone five times since January 20, the date of the US president's inauguration. "And that also applies to his approach toward Russia..."

Four days after his most recent phone call with Trump, on Saturday, June 14, one day after Israeli strikes on Iran, Putin refused to answer directly when asked about threats from Washington and Israel to assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "I don't even want to discuss such a possibility. I don't want to," he replied curtly. "We observe that today, in Iran, despite the complexity of the country's internal political processes, there is a consolidation of society around its political leaders," he insisted instead.

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