MADELEINE Albright called Vladimir Putin “small and pale” and compared him to a reptile in her last op-ed before her death from cancer. The former Secretary of State, who passed away on Wednesday, described her first impressions of the Russian leader in an essay published by the New York Times last month. Albright was the […]
MADELEINE Albright called Vladimir Putin “small and pale” and compared him to a reptile in her last op-ed before her death from cancer.
The former Secretary of State, who passed away on Wednesday, described her first impressions of the Russian leader in an essay published by the New York Times last month.
Albright was the first Clinton administration official to meet Putin after he became acting president of Russia in 2000, she recalled.
“Flying home, I recorded my impressions,” Albright shared.
“‘Putin is small and pale,’ I wrote, ‘so cold as to be almost reptilian.'”
Albright also noted that Putin was “embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.”
“Putin spoke unemotionally and without notes about his determination to resurrect Russia’s economy,” she added.
In the same essay, the first female Secretary of State wrote that Putin would be making a “historic error” if Russia invaded Ukraine.
Just weeks later, Russian troops entered Ukraine, starting a military conflict that is ongoing.
Albright’s family confirmed news of her passing at 84 on Wednesday.
“We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine K Albright, the 64th US Secretary of State and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today,” the statement read.
The family went on to confirm that her cause of death was cancer, and said she was surrounded by family and friends when she passed.
“We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend,” the statement continued.
The politician came to the United States from Prague as a refugee in 1948.
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From there, she rose in the ranks of American politics and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
President Bill Clinton chose Albright as America’s top diplomat in 1996, and she served in that capacity for the last four years of the Clinton administration.
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