Credit where credit is due. Vladimir Putin may be a despisable person, but, damn, he's so Russian, he sweats Vodka:
French media had quoted Putin as saying in a heated conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Moscow on August 12 that Saakashvili should be "hung by his balls" for starting the war which was roundly condemned by the West.
Source: Reuters
The Russian soul is an intrepid one. They like their unbashed, dauntlessly honest attitude, they sell it as a feature, where some might consider it outright rude. Can't say I blame them for that. Hearing one of the most "important" persons on the world talking like that does find favor with me. That's probably my Slavic side, or maybe even the faint Mongolic or Thrakian genes, so I don't expect you westerners to understand that. It's great, because it's stupid, but it's manly, which is even more stupid, and that in turn, makes it great again.
He goes on:
"Seriously speaking, both me and you know about tragic events in another region of the world, in Iraq, invaded by American troops due to a concocted pretext of searching for weapons of mass destruction," said Putin.
"They found no weapons, but hanged the head of state, albeit on other charges ... " said Putin, referring to the 2006 execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"I believe it is up to Georgia's people to decide what kind of responsibility must be borne by those politicians who led to these harshest and tragic consequences," he said.
ibid
No matter what you may think about Mr. Putin, it does take quite some self-confidence to accuse the Americans so openly of wrongdoing. Demanding to hang the Georgian president by his balls for attacking another country under "false" premises is indirectly asking to do the same thing to George. Bush. Jr. Not that I would mind.
And I'd like to take that as an opportunity to remind everybody that, despite these brutish words, Putin is a man of extreme subtlety, and no doubt even those words were duly prepared and carefully placed (…or maybe I overestimate him?) I still think he's one of the most dangerous people on this planet (known to me, anyway) and I'm watching the current political "developments" in Russia with great unease.
2 comments:
I think from times to times, other politicians should be as true and offending as Putin is. We have seen our Chancellor Merkel on the G8 meeting trying to hold hands with Bush, and the "results" of that meeting were a lot of longish but semantically empty promises. Why couldn't she have stood up for once and said "Mr. Bush, your country is destroying the environment of our planet, so stop it."
I don't think you overestimate Putin. In the opinion of a very wise person (that I had the pleasure to have my Abitur average ruined by *g*), even George Bush is a very clever man. If praying publicly, holding children's books upside down, looking sheepishly and all those habits of his were just a means to sneak into doing as much evil as possible, he was quite successful...
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