Many observers who covered Vladimir Putin’s visit to Kazan noted his demonstrative lack of respect for the host — President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, whose status was clearly demeaned. Putin personally made condescending and demeaning remarks about Minnikhanov twice. The first time was relatively successful, as Minnikhanov did not immediately hear Putin’s words, and he responded arrogantly by saying, «What are you doing?! Don’t distract me!» The second time, Putin either lost sight of Minnikhanov or pretended to and said, «He just left somewhere. Where did he go?»
It should be noted that Putin’s use of the informal address to officials is not his style. More precisely, it was not Putin’s style in the past when he tried to demonstrate the manners of an intelligent person in public. Of course, it is quite possible that he now feels like a «supreme being» and has decided to disregard these rules of propriety. However, it is unlikely that he would allow himself to be treated in such a way by those he considers his equals — such as Trump, Merkel, Macron, and so on.
During this visit, not only Putin himself, but also the Kremlin-controlled media tried to emphasize that Putin and Minnikhanov were not equals. None of them referred to Minnikhanov as the «president of the republic», which he is still the only one in Russia, but only as the «head of the republic». As we have seen, Putin himself called him the «leader of the republic,» mocking the fact that there was no need to put him in an uncomfortable position after he had already done so. The same goes for the use of «Tataria» by these media to refer to the Republic of Tatarstan, which is essentially equivalent to using the informal title for its president.
Well, as the Russian proverb goes, «if you call yourself a mushroom, crawl into the basket.» The leadership of Tatarstan in general, and Minnikhanov in particular, did not even try — at least publicly — to insist on the renewal of the expiring agreement on the division of powers between the federal center and the Republic of Tatarstan, which had been the basis of relations between Kazan and Moscow since the times of Shaimiev and Yeltsin. This did not require any effort on the part of the Kremlin to overcome the resistance of the Tatar leadership to the downgrading of its status, which automatically resulted from the transformation of Moscow-Kazan relations from special and contractual to ordinary — between the center and the province.
Thus, it can be said that the attitude of «What are you doing?» and «Where have you gone?» was well deserved.