President Vladimir Putin: First of all I would like to thank you sincerely for finding the time to meet. I won’t burden you with my impressions of your books, for I’m sure that you talk about this a lot with everyone you meet. The only thing I would like to say is that it is not by chance that your works are so popular in Russia. Although our two countries are physically very far apart, there is probably something in the soul of the Russian and Brazilian peoples that brings us together, and this means that how you write and what you write are close to the hearts of Russian people.
I would like to thank you for your very good and warm words about Russia. I hope that you enjoyed the journey you have just completed and I hope that this will not be your last visit to Russia. I hope you will tell me about your trip because it is a journey I would like to make myself at some time in the future. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to meet with you.
Paulo Coelho (Translated from Russian): First of all, I would like to thank you for finding time for this meeting. This meeting is the culmination of my trip across Russia, a country which, as you rightly noted, has much in common with Brazil, despite being geographically so distant. This journey gave me the chance to have direct contact with your people, with concrete individuals and, most importantly, with the Russian soul. I discovered a strong and optimistic country, a country filled with the emotions that are so dear to us Brazilians.
I also discovered that you are very popular among the people. In many of the places I visited I was able to see for myself the enthusiasm and optimism that people feel for the work you are doing. I had dreamed about this journey from Moscow to Vladivostok, about crossing the heart of Russia, ever since 1982. Unfortunately, the only place I have not yet visited, though I would like to, is your native city, St Petersburg. I hope that next time I come I will have the opportunity to go there.
Vladimir Putin: I am sure that you will like it there. Do come back, choose a time – the best time is actually right now, the end of May and beginning of June. This is when St Petersburg is at its most beautiful. After that we will have to meet again and talk. I know this part of Russia better than the part that you have just visited. I heard that you very much liked Baikal.
Paulo Coelho: Not only did I get a lot of pleasure out of my visit there but I realised that I wanted to swim in the lake.
Vladimir Putin: And did you?
Paulo Coelho: Yes, I did. It was cold – only four degrees – but I felt as though I had plunged into the heart of Russia.
Vladimir Putin: The Brazilians are a strong people, I can tell you that. Not everyone would be so brave.
Paulo Coelho: I felt a kind of impulse, a need to do this. And when I came out I felt the warmth, the enthusiasm, the beauty that surrounded me.
Vladimir Putin: It’s not Copacabana, of course, but it is a very beautiful place. I was lucky enough to see the famous beaches of Brazil, true, only in the evening and only for a few minutes, but it was very beautiful and I also enjoyed it.
Paulo Coelho: You really did like Brazil?
Vladimir Putin: Yes, I did like it. We didn’t get the chance to see a lot, but I did like what I was able to see. The President invited me to visit the central regions too and said that some of my colleagues had spent several days there. I can imagine myself at Lake Baikal and I more than like it there – I love it with all my heart, but I really cannot imagine myself in the jungle. Having crocodiles and anacondas and such like around does not make me particularly enthusiastic.
Paulo Coelho: Yes, that’s true. It doesn’t make us enthusiastic either. I had the chance, you know to stop at little stations, even at the smallest places, and everywhere I met my readers, fans of my works. I felt their closeness and love. I want to assure you that I will pass on these feelings to the Brazilian people, to Brazilian readers. This was an unusually strong sensation and it reached its peak in Vladivostok when I saw a Russian girl holding a Brazilian flag and welcoming me joyfully. At that moment I understood more than ever how our two countries, Russia and Brazil, are interdependent and how they complement each other.
Vladimir Putin: These really were sincere gestures. These really were your fans. It is impossible to stage this kind of thing.
Paulo Coelho: What really surprised me was the Russian people’s attitude to literature, their love for literature. A love for literature is their defining feature today.
Vladimir Putin: I’m surprised that this surprised you. This is a tradition in Russia. We are very proud of such traditions. Recently, though, interest in books has fallen somewhat. Books are being increasingly replaced by other forms of information – TV, the Internet, computers. But Russians still have a love for good books in their blood.
Paulo Coelho: I also noted that this attitude to literature is found in all classes of Russian society. The Russian people’s attitude to literature has made a contribution to the world’s mentality. The world’s outlook, its way of thinking, was formed in part by the Russian people’s love of literature, and the contribution the Russian nation has made to developing literature, ballet, painting and all the arts has been successfully exported and has played its part in shaping the cultural landscape of the modern world as we know it today.
Vladimir Putin: A Russian ballet school has been opened in Brazil.
Paulo Coelho: I didn’t know that. Oh, yes, in Santa Catarina. Yes, this will definitely help to develop the cultural ties between Russia and Brazil. These are the kinds of unique examples that always make a contribution to mutual cultural enrichment among peoples. I would like to thank you, Mr President, and express on behalf of myself and the Brazilian people our gratitude for the warm reception that my works have been given here in Russia. I know about this and it makes me very happy.
Vladimir Putin: I can not take credit for this. It is your achievement.
Paulo Coelho: It is very important. I would like to be so bold as to present you and your daughters this book about my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage I made in 1986.
Vladimir Putin: So you decided in the end to return to Catholicism?
Paulo Coelho: Yes, that is quite right. It was in 1986, after my inner rebellion. I was educated by the Jesuits and that was a very strict school. They imposed their faith very rigorously and it was after this that I felt the inner need to visit Santiago de Compostela in order to enter the faith consciously and of my own accord. This is a very significant book because I was already 40 when I decided to return to Catholicism. It was a serious and conscious decision and I just want to say that this book reflects everything I felt at that moment. I put all of it into these pages. I would like to give you this book as a token of my best feelings.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. In 1986, you decided that trendy things were interesting but that traditional values were in the end more important?
Paulo Coelho: Yes, traditions are very important.