Perhaps, the latest book titled ‘Putin’s Cup of Tea’ published in May 2025 portraying the personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is a bold, inventive, and relevant collection of poems that pours clear, insightful commentary over human passion and the world’s simmering political and emotional landscapes. The poetry book also looks at war, politics and his life philosophically and out of the box. It blends the domestic with dramatic, stirring images of teapots and tanks, chefs and commanders, to reflect the unsettling proximity of everyday life to global conflict. In this special interview, Shalom Dan, the book’s author, explains the reasons for writing ‘Putin’s Cup of Tea’ which was published in May 2025. Here are the interview excerpts:
Kester Kenn Klomegah: Can you explain, in some detail, the theme and its implications of your latest collection of poems, Putin’s Cup of Tea?
Shalom Dan: Putin’s Cup of Tea explores the intersection of passion, power, conflict, and the ordinary human experience through the lens of both global geopolitics and personal introspection. The title is deliberately intriguing.
The poems in the collection deal with themes such as war, propaganda, sovereignty, kitchen, café, and the fragile negotiations between East and West. But beyond the immediate reference to Vladimir Putin, the collection is a broader meditation on leadership all around the world, silence and sound, the theatre of diplomacy, and the cost of control. I find that at the heart of conflicts are minds that need peace. The book looks beyond what meets the eyes; referring to violence as smooth and peace as rough, cafes as traps and dams as cafes, bullets as snowflakes, etc.
KKK: How did you start and what were the inspiring (driving) factors? Were you influenced by geopolitical factors and his political ambitions as leader of Russia?
SD: The collection began almost accidentally. I wrote the first poem after reading an article about the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war, how language, culture, imagery, and narratives were being weaponized by both sides. Poems like “Burning Rejection,” “Cafes of Kakhovka,” “Unsanctionable,” and others point to this. It struck me how similar tactics, though subtler, are used in Africa and, indeed, in many parts of the world where leadership must provide reasons for actions and even inactions.
Putin became a symbolic figure in my writing, not merely as a political leader, but as an archetype of control, calculation, and paradox—in fact, an enigma worth pondering. His presence in global politics is both fearsome and fascinating. I was certainly influenced by his ambition and the way he crafts identity, Russia’s and his own, through actions that transcend the battlefield. But I was also driven by a desire to comment on the African continent’s complicated posture in these shifting global dynamics. How do we navigate a world where alliances are strategic? Where small nations are bargaining chips, as seen in the poems “Ceasefire,” “End of Water,” and “I Said Bread,” among others?
KKK: What leadership attributes would you use in describing Vladimir Putin?
SD: Putin is calculated, patient, strategic, and deeply attuned to the optics of power. He is a master of controlled chaos, someone who understands how to hold silence like a weapon and when to unleash shock for effect. Whether one admires or abhors him, it’s clear he possesses a kind of cold resilience and detachment that allows him to pursue long-term goals regardless of cost or public view.
In the book, I explore these traits through metaphor: storms that don’t roar but quietly flood villages, hands that pour tea with precision, a chef that cooks time rather than herbs, and eyes that read maps like memories. It’s not an endorsement nor rejection, but a poetic rendering of what such power looks and feels like in a global age.
KKK: What would you say about the significance of the book in the context of geopolitical and social changes in Africa? Is there any plan to continue with the theme for the next edition of the book Putin’s Cup of Tea?
SD: The book is significant, I believe, because it nudges African readers to think beyond the continent in ways that are both critical and poetic. We are no longer mere spectators of global politics; we are entangled in the same web through economics, diplomacy, cultural realignment, and ideological influence. Our leaders look East and West. Our youths migrate. Our conflicts are sponsored, solved, or prolonged by foreign interests.
As for a follow-up, yes, I am considering a second volume or a complementary collection. I already have a couple of poems that will go well with a Donald Trump persona. It will have a title like “Trumping Business” (not the actual title, though, *smiles). In the future, I may explore the idea of “other cups”: Xi Jinping’s Cup of Rice, The West’s Cup of Oil, or even Africa’s Cup of Lemonade. The metaphors are endless, and the world keeps boiling.
