Putin did not pose for topless photographs.
--- "B." <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [Can't find full transcript. Wish I could;
> apparently
> he commented on the Spice Girls. -B.]
>
>
>
>
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSoMEZ8yu2xp63DbQLq4MXf3KjyQ
>
> Naomi Campbell interviews 'rebel angel' Hugo Chavez
>
> Sun Jan 6, 7:06 PM ET
>
> LONDON (AFP) — British supermodel Naomi Campbell has
> interviewed Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez,
> describing him as a "rebel angel" who is unafraid to
> speak his mind but poses no threat to democracy.
>
> Campbell was granted an audience with the outspoken
> left-wing leader as part of her new brief as
> contributing editor for British men's lifestyle
> magazine GQ, interviewing leading figures from
> politics, sport and entertainment.
>
> She wrote in the article, out Thursday but extracts
> of
> which were released in advance, that she was aware
> her
> choice of subject would be controversial, but
> insisted
> she did not go to Venezuela for political reasons.
>
> "I'd always heard Hugo Chavez was a people's
> president
> and I wanted to see if that was true... I didn't
> want
> to judge Chavez, or probe him for his political
> views,
> even though he gave them freely," she wrote.
>
> "I simply went to interview Hugo Chavez the man,"
> she
> added. The catwalk star also said she wanted to get
> him to donate to the Nelson Mandela Foundation,
> which
> she represents, and see some of his social
> programmes.
>
> Campbell said the Venezuelan leader -- who in
> November
> was told to "shut up" by Spain's King Juan Carlos I
> --
> was forthright and "fearless, but not threatening or
> unreasonable".
>
> Venezuelans also seemed happier than her last visit
> 10
> years ago for a Sports Illustrated magazine
> photoshoot, she added.
>
> "I hope Venezuela's relations with America will
> improve in the immediate future. Whatever the future
> holds, for me his role will always be that of a
> rebel
> angel," she said.
>
> During her time in Venezuela, she was treated to
> Chavez's familiar rhetoric against the United States
> and in particular President George W. Bush.
>
> Chavez -- who once described Bush as "the devil"
> during a United Nations General Assembly address --
> said the US president was "completely crazy" and
> Condoleezza Rice was "secretary of state of a
> genocidal government".
>
> Asked if he thought Bush wanted to kill him, he
> replied: "I think he does. Him and his companions."
>
> Elsewhere, Chavez found time to defend Venezuela's
> human rights record and vaunt his country's oil
> reserves, but also gave his views on less weighty
> matters like fashion, pop music and the British
> royal
> family.
>
> Cuba's Fidel Castro was the world's most stylish
> leader, he said ("His uniform is impeccable. His
> boots
> are polished. His beard is elegant"), he was aware
> of
> the newly-reformed Spice Girls and admired Britain's
> Prince Charles.
>
> He also refused to rule out following Russian
> President Vladimir Putin's example and posing for
> topless photographs. "Why not? Touch my muscles," he
> reportedly told the supermodel.
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