When he had a beer with Vladimir Putin in early 2014, no one could have known that the Russian president would invade Crimea a month later. This is what King Willem-Alexander says in the podcast Through the eyes of the king, in which he looks back on ten years of kingship. The king thus refers to the controversial photo taken a month earlier at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, with the already controversial Russian president. The duo drank a beer in a seemingly relaxed atmosphere. A few weeks later, Putin invaded Crimea and on July 17 of that year, MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile. “No one could know that,” said the king.
The photo was widely criticized. In the podcast, the king explains, among other things, how the meeting came about. It was the Kremlin that asked Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima to join the Holland Heineken House. It was not their first meeting with Putin. “We had had the Dutch-Russian friendship year the year before. It was also the policy of the Dutch government to rekindle friendship with Russia.”
In the podcast he also looks back on the controversy that elicited the painful image. “If I had known that, it would have been different, of course.” Was it a good idea to receive Putin, who was already controversial at the time, in the Holland House? “Then you can no longer visit many countries and do business nowhere. Look, there are always things you need to keep talking about. Problems and differences of opinion must be open to discussion. Going everywhere is not always possible. Certainly not. The border must be viewed one at a time.”