PUTIN NAMES FAVOURITE BOOKS, MUSIC, SPORTS TO WORLD WEB








MOSCOW, March 6. /RIA Novosti/. President Vladimir Putin is an early riser though his workday never finishes before 10 pm, and all too often, midnight. Athletics help him to cope with a tight schedule. He starts every morning with half an hour's exercises, after which he spends twenty minutes or so in the swimming pool. He also makes a sporting break for an hour and a half, afternoon, the President said in an internet interview.


	When asked about the books he is reading now, Mr. Putin said it was "History of Catherine the Great's Reign" and Dmitri Likhachev's "Meditations about Russia". Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are his favourite authors, said the President as he made a grateful reference to his school teacher of literature, to whom he owed his love of books.


	In music, the President prefers popular classics. When he has spare time at home, he plays records--most often, Tchaikovsky or a Liszt interpretation of Schubert, or the other way round.


	President Putin also loves the cinema, especially French, though he is too busy now to see all the films he wants. Rostislav Plyatt was his favourite Russian performer, and Romi Schneider, Western.