When Putin met Bono and Bob Geldof (2001)

On 21 July 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced philanthropist frontmen Bono and Bob Geldof to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. The rock icons and campaigners were attending the summit to promote the “drop the debt” cause which encouraged more economically developed states to collectively write off international debt owed to them by African nations in order to aid economic growth on the continent. The meeting, in which Putin spoke to his fellow guests in English, came at a time when Britain and the West were making an effort to bring Russia into the so-called rules-based international order. Putin had been inaugurated as president 7 May 2000, though had been acting president since Boris Yeltsin’s surprise resignation on 31 December 1999. Though Putin is a proficient English speaker, footage of him speaking English is rare, owing to his preference for promoting his native language at international events. Western efforts to woo the Russian Federation under Putin would continue into the late 2000s. Putin’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007, however, signalled a period of increasing boldness and defiance in Russian foreign policy – and the Putin regime’s rejection of Western efforts to bring Russia into to international community. In May 2022, on the invitation of President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, Bono and U2 guitarist The Edge performed a 40-minute concert in a metro station in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The concert was a show of solidarity with Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian invasion as well as Ukraine’s civilian population enduring the conflict. #Putin #VladimirPutin #TonyBlair #Blair #Bono #BobGeldof #U2 #BoomtownRats #DropTheDebt #G8 #Genoa #Italy #Russia #RussianFederation #InternationalRelations #Ukraine #UkraineWar #RussianInvasionOfUkraine To license the footage featured in this clip, follow the link below: To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below: 🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) - @ITNArchive 🎥 Follow us on Twitter - 🎥 Like us on Facebook - 🎥 Check out our TikTok - @itnarchive1955