Vladimir Putin rarely speaks English in public, leading many to believe his English language skills were few, if not non-existent altogether. But that all changed in 2018 when then-president Donald Trump privately met with Putin during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. According to The Hill, during that one-on-one meeting, no interpreters or aides were present. Not only did that raise issues about breaking protocol, it also brought into question Putin’s English capabilities since Trump does not speak Russian.
“In free discourse, at the sidelines of summits, he often speaks in English,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the state-run Rossiya 1 television channel (via Newsweek). “But during negotiations and when he is conducting an official meeting, of course, he communicates through a translator.” Peskov added that Putin “practically understands English completely and sometimes even corrects the translators.”
However, it may be the case that Putin has situational fluency. During his conversations with filmmaker Oliver Stone for the four-part documentary series, “The Putin Interviews,” the Russian president used a translator and responded to questions over the course of a dozen interviews in Russian. He occasionally said a few expressions in English, per Metro. For his part, Putin is more modest, saying, according to Express, “I get by in German and I can express myself more or less in English.”
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