Andrew Marr has described Vladimir Putin as “one of the cleverest men that I have ever interviewed” as he accused the “deranged” Russian leader of hiding behind his country’s nuclear capability. The veteran broadcaster, who left the BBC in November last year after 21 years, interviewed Mr Putin in 2014 ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Reflecting on their meeting, Marr told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “He was extraordinary. He’s got this very famous, cold, cold stare that people talk about, but I would say, listening to him, because he was being interviewed then in lots of different languages, he’s one of the cleverest men that I have ever interviewed.
“He may not be any more, but he was then. I was in a slightly disturbed state myself, because I just interviewed Elton John before I had gone out to Sochi in Russia.
