Putin only follows 18 people on Twitter, and one of them has been dead for 5 years — here’s the full list
By Alexandra Ma From Business Insider
Russian President Vladimir Putin only follows 18 people on Twitter. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
While no world leader uses Twitter quite like Donald Trump, it’s still an arena where power and prestige are distributed. A presidential follow counts for a lot.
Russian President Vladimir Putin follows just 18 accounts from his English-speaking handle — and they’re a weird mix of politicians, many of whom are accused of corruption, and one of whom died in 2013. And no Trump.
(The Russian account only follows his English account, the Russian government and his prime minister.)
This is @PutinRF_Eng, the Russian President’s English-language account. His cover photo is of his home and office, the Kremlin. As you can see, though, it sometimes tweets in Russian anyway.
Vladimir Putin/Twitter
The latest round of Russian-language tweets were posted during Putin’s annual state of the nation speech on Thursday, when he unveiled the country’s new nuclear weapons.
According to his Twitter bio, tweets from Putin himself are signed with
Vladimir Putin/Twitter
While this may suggest that Putin isn’t checking his Twitter feed very often, the people he has chosen to follow does speak volumes.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP
1. Himself — or, at least, his Russian-language account. It posts exactly the same things as his English-language account — photo ops, meetings, and official events — but in Russian.
Grigory Dukor/Reuters
2. He also follows the official Twitter feed of Russia, the country.
Shutterstock
3. Hugo Chavez, the former President of Venezuela — who’s also been dead since 2013. Chavez, who spoke out against US dominance in world politics, met Putin more than once and pledged to build up alliances between Venezuela and Russia. In 2016, current Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro awarded Putin the
Chavez and Putin in Moscow in 2006. Pressphotos/Getty
Chavez’s account mysteriously tweeted a graphic containing a quote from the dead president last month. Before that, the account had remained untouched since February 18, 2013 — 15 days before his death.
It turned out that the Twitter account was revived by Chavez’s daughter, Maria Gabriela, who announced that her foundation would revive his account.
Source: Reuters, Maria Gabriela Chavez/Twitter
4. Dilma Rousseff, ex-President of Brazil. She was removed from office in August 2016 after being impeached for hiding her country’s economic woes in order to win an election in 2014.
REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Source: Business Insider
5. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who served as President of Argentina from 2007 to 2015. Before that, she was its First Lady for four years. She faced several corruption scandals during her presidency, and an Argentinian judge ordered her arrest last December.
Reuters
Source: Al Jazeera
6. Ricardo Martinelli, who was President of Panama from 2009 to 2014. He moved to Miami after his term. Interpol ordered his extradition back to Panama last May after he was accused of embezzlement and illegally spying on his political opponents and business rivals during his term.
Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Source: Reuters, The New York Times
7. Donald Tusk, current President of the European Council and former Polish Prime Minister. Tusk sought close relations with Putin during his premiership. Poland’s current ruling party last year accused Tusk of signing an
European Council President Donald Tusk Daniel Biskup
Source: The Telegraph
8. Nicolas Sarkozy, ex-President of France. After he left office in 2012, Sarkozy has met Putin at least four times, and made statements sympathetic to Russia. When he was running for election in 2016, he said the EU should lift sanctions on Russia and even endorsed its annexation of Crimea.
Putin and Sarkozy at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow in October 2015. Sergei Chirikov/Reuters
Source: BuzzFeed
9. Gerard Larcher, Speaker of the French Senate. He met Putin in Moscow twice between 2015 and 2016, and like Sarkozy, has also said he was willing to discuss lifting sanctions against Russia. France still imposes heavy sanctions on Russia through the EU.
Eric Feferberg/Reuters
Source: President of Russia official site, The Moscow Times, Politico
10. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. The two leaders met a few times last year, during which they discussed their countries’ burgeoning trade ties in the energy sector. They were so friendly with each other at a meeting in St Petersburg last June, they even held hands more than once.
Source: Foreign Policy, Hindustan Times
11. Igor Dodon, President of Moldova, a former Soviet Union republic. Dodon, who mainly tweets in Russian, appears to be quite a big fan of Putin — he called Putin a “patriot” that his own country needs. He has also called for closer relations with Russia and said that Moldova shouldn’t join NATO.
Putin and Dodon at a meeting of heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States outside Moscow in December 2017. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS
Source: Deutsche Welle, Newsweek
12. Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus. He tweets in English and Greek, which — as far as we know — Putin doesn’t speak. Cyprus is one of Russia’s most popular tourist destinations and a huge recipient of investment by rich Russians.
Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters
Source: President of Russia official site, Bloomberg
13. Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia. There’s no obvious reason for this connection, and the two do not appear to have met.
Juan Manuel Santos in Bogota in January 2018. Ricardo Mazalan/AP
14. Aleksandar Vucic, the President of Serbia, who also tweets in Russian. The two leaders met in Moscow last December.
Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters
Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
15. The official Twitter account of the Mali presidency, which headed by Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Mali and Russia have cordial bilateral relations.
Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters
16. Putin follows some of his employees too. They are: Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Sergey Lavrov…
Lavrov and Putin in Brussels in February 2011. REUTERS/Thierry Roge
17. … Russia’s mission to the UN, currently represented by Vasily Nebenzya …
The United Nations General Assembly hall during a vote. Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
