Former Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has not changed his views regarding Russian president Vladimir Putin, going as far as saying he would put his 88-year-old body in the firing line to save the leader from harm.
Before he was ousted as F1 uber-chief, Ecclestone put Sochi on the calendar and Putin still attends the Russian Grand Prix with a highly visible presence.
Already in 2015, Ecclestone said he was Putin's "best supporter", because there is now "no place for democracy" in the world.
Now, in an interview with The Times, Ecclestone says he has not changed his views about "good guy" Putin.
"He's never done anything that isn't doing good things for people," he insisted. "I would like him running Europe. I am not a supporter of democracy. You need a dictator."
Ecclestone said when Putin invaded Crimea in 2014, he was only trying "to bring Russia back together again" and he ventured that Putin being blamed for the assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter last year was "fake news".
He continued: "If someone had a machine gun and was prepared to shoot Putin, I would stand in front of him."
Liberty Media is struggling to negotiate Formula 1's future after listing it on the Nasdaq stock exchange, according to former supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
The American company bought the sport early in 2017, listing it on the world's second largest stock exchange and ousting Ecclestone.
88-year-old Ecclestone was in Austria last weekend and commented on the difficulty Liberty Media is having negotiating the post-2020 Concorde Agreement.
"I was always free in my decisions," Ecclestone told Auto Motor und Sport.
Asked if it was a mistake for Liberty to float F1, he answered: "They couldn't help it. They had to get back the purchase price of eight billion dollars somehow."
https://www.grandprix247.com/2016/04/30/russian-grand-prix-secure-with-putins-backing/
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