PUTIN THANKS WIFE FOR BEARING FIRST LADY'S CROSS, LOOKS FOR NICE GIFT








MOSCOW, March 6. /RIA Novosti/. When interviewed for the world web, President Vladimir Putin refused to say what he was going to give his wife for Women's Day, March 8. It must come as pleasant surprise, he explained.


	He never gives instructions to Mrs. Putin. She is a law unto herself, and if he were a home tyrant, she would do just the contrary to what he ordered, said the President.


	When asked about the way the presidential couple behaved in public, Mr. Putin said that every man and woman was free to choose his and her manner of conduct.


	Russia elected only its President, not his wife, he remarked as he thanked Lyudmilla Putin for bravely bearing the First Lady's hard cross.


	President Putin agrees with a widespread opinion that women are too scanty in Russian ruling structures.