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Putin Sends Telegramme To Bush Hours Before Obama Meeting
This from Reuters:
Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised the hospitality and openness of U.S. former President George W. Bush in a telegramme sent hours before meeting his successor Barack Obama.
"During the last years we have been working on strengthening Russia-U.S. cooperation. Although there were differences between our countries, I always valued your openness and sincerity," Putin said, congratulating Bush on his 63rd birthday on July 6.
"With special warmth I recall your hospitality in the Crawford ranch and your family estate in Kennebunkport," Putin wrote, referring to their 2007 meeting at the Bush family vacation home when the two leaders went fishing and ate lobster.
Putin’s soul may be black as a charcoal briquette, but it was certainly classy of him to send a birthday greeting and thank you to president Bush. Bush really did go out of his way to reach out to Russia throughout his presidency.
Also, I didn’t even know you could send a telegramme anymore. What’s up with that?
Putin Treats Obama To Russian Breakfast
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited President Obama for a “Russian-Style” breakfast during their meeting.
Putin treated Obama to black caviar with sour cream, smoked beluga with pancakes and tea made in the traditional Russian samovar, a big coal-fired kettle.
Does that not sound like the worst breakfast imaginable? Caviar, sour cream, and pancakes? It’s no wonder Putin never smiles.
Video: Putin Sings Along With Nervous School Girl
Who wouldn’t get nervous sitting that close to an icy-cold KGB killer.
Picture: Putin Pretending To Be Tourist During Reagan’s 1988 Visit To Moscow
This is an amazing picture. See the guy with the camera around his neck standing behind the boy? That’s current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pretending to be a tourist when we know today that he was a KGB agent.
According to the photographer the Secret Service was under no illusions at the time however, and acknowledged the so-called “tourists” were KGB.
Gorbachev: Putin Represents Worst Of Communist Party in Soviet Union
In an explosive interview with the AP, former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev had some very frank things to say about Vladimir Putin and his United Russia Party:
Mikhail Gorbachev says Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is similar to "the worst of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" and that Russia is today a country where the parliament and judiciary are not fully free.
Gorbachev also says the global economic crisis showed capitalism should be tempered with elements of the socialist system he played a critical role in sweeping away.
Kudos to Gorbachev for being intellectually honest about the political situation in Putin’s Russia. Putin has stacked every level of government with his KGB cronies and taken people’s rights away. Those who deny that Russia is backsliding rapidly into the sins of the past are either blind or just liars.
Interestingly enough, Gorbachev is viewed as a traitor by many Russians. They blame him for the fall of the Soviet Empire and look at him with disdain. Putin has gone out of his way to push this point of view while at the same time diminishing the crimes of Joseph Stalin.
Putin’s New ‘Treason Bill’ Makes The Stalinization Of Russia All But Complete
It looks like the Soviet Union isn’t dead after all. Vladimir Putin has spent years gutting every democratic institution in Russia. No more free media or free speech. No right to assembly, no independent judiciary, etc. Now, it appears that Putin is putting the icing on his totalitarian cake with a new “Treason bill” that is expected to become law.
New legislation backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would allow Russian authorities to label any government critic a traitor—a move that rights activists said Wednesday was a chilling throwback to times of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The bill, which is expected to become law, would expanded the definition of treason to include damaging Russia’s constitutional order, sovereignty or territorial integrity. That, rights activists said, would essentially let authorities interpret any act against state as treason—a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Activists said that would catapult Russia’s justice system back to the times of Stalin’s purges, calling it “legislation in the spirit of Stalin and Hitler.”
“It returns the Russian justice to the times of 1920-1950s,” the activists, which included Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva and Civic Assistance director Svetlana Gannushkina, said in a joint statement.
This is the final death nail for any kind of free speech in Russia. Putin’s grip on the country is now complete. Russia is once again a Soviet dictatorship with a KGB man at its head. Up to this point, Russia hasn’t been able to declare open season on human rights, because victims of the regime could complain to the European Court of Human Rights. These complaints are made through NGO’s and the new law will effectively neuter all NGO’s in Russia.
Putin will be free to re-open the gullogs and be the KGB strongman he’s always wanted to be. America haters love to call president Bush a ‘war criminal’ but somehow miss the fact that Vladimir Putin actually is a war criminal. The atrocities committed in Chechnya by the Russian military make Iraq look like Disneyland.
Putin Plots His Return
It looks like Vladmir Putin is tired of pretending he’s still not running the country:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could resign from his post in 2009 to pave the way for Vladimir PutinVedomosti newspaper reported on Thursday, citing an unidentified source close to the Kremlin. to return to the Kremlin,
Medvedev Wednesday proposed increasing the presidential term to six years from four years, a step the newspaper said was part of a plan drawn up by Vladislav Surkov, who serves as Medvedev’s first deputy chief of staff.
Under the plan, Medvedev could implement changes to the constitution and unpopular social reforms “so that Putin could return to the Kremlin for a longer period,” the newspaper said.
“Under this scenario Medvedev could resign early citing changes to the constitution and then presidential elections could take place in 2009,” the newspaper said, citing the unidentified source close to the Kremlinl.
Only in Russia would such a ridiculous scheme even be possible.
Putin: Russia’s Leading Sex Symbol?
Vladimir Putin may be a steely ex-KGB officer to the rest of the world, but inside Russia, he’s nothing short of a rock star.
Russian celebrity gossip magazine “Secrets of the Stars” just released an issue dedicated to the former Russian President.
Here are some of the highlights:
…This time the magazine has outdone itself, carrying numerous photos of the prime minister in heroic poses, kayaking, swimming with dolphins and arm wrestling, under the headline: “Sometimes He’s Just So Cool”.
“There’s not a single woman who would not dream of embracing and kissing Vladimir Vladimirovich and hearing his declaration of love,” the article opined.
A great deal of attention was given to Ludmila Putin, his wife who won praise for her ability to “cook, clean and knit”.
Quoting a German friend, Mrs Putin reportedly praised the prime minister as a model husband because he did not beat her, but also noted that he was an unemotional “vampire” who “sucked all the juices” out of her.
Alongside the magazine’s many photographs, articles charted the noble course of Mr Putin’s life.
Under one, headlined “I severed its head with one blow”, the magazine approvingly reported how Mr Putin killed rats and once beheaded a duck with an axe as a boy. Showing his merciful side the young Vladimir also rescued three kittens from being drowned.
Another story entitled “I like all Russian women” looked at his love life. Among his admirers was Vera, who was attracted to Mr Putin’s “charisma and charm” and whom Mr Putin liked in return for “her ability to do house chores well”.
The magazine even carried a photograph of Alina Kabayeva, the 25-year-old rhythmic gymnast with whom Mr Putin has denied having an affair. The dubious reports of the relationship appear to have enhanced Mr Putin’s popularity.
While some of its content may have seemed risque, the magazine actually revealed nothing that the Kremlin had not approved as information for the public domain.
Ordinary Russians do not seem to mind, however, with many readers lapping up the minutiae of Mr Putin’s life detailed in the magazine.
“I like to read about what Putin wears,” said Galina, a Moscow businesswoman reading a copy of the magazine on a park bench.
“I like to know that he enjoys eating fried cabbage and ham. It somehow makes me feel closer to him.”
I’ve always found Russia to be a fascinating place. The Russian people know when they’re being fed pure propaganda, but rather than get mad about it they just enjoy it. Nothing gets printed in Russia without the approval of the Kremlin. So all the bullshit stories in this magazine were approved to foster a particular image of Putin. Everyone knows this is the case, but nobody cares.
Shock: Putin Is Approved As Prime Minister
We told you yesterday about Putin handing Russia over to the newly appointed elected President Dmitry Medvedev. We also told you that President Medvedev nominated Putin for the post of Prime Minister less than two hours after taking office.
As expected, Russia’s parliament rubber stamped voted overwhelmingly to confirm Putin’s nomination for the second most powerful position in Russia.
Less than 26 hours after handing over the Presidency and assuming the role of Prime Minister, Putin gave a 45-minute speech laying out his domestic policy initiatives and other plans.
It remains to be seen whether Putin merely changed the nameplate on his office door and will continue to call the shots in Russia, or if newly appointed President Medvedev will chart his own course.
Putin Hands Russia Over To Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated as Russia’s President today, taking the reigns from two-term President Vladmir Putin. Two hours after becoming President, Medvedev nominated Putin for the post of Prime Minister, which is the second most powerful position in Russia.
The Russian parliament will have to rubber stamp vote on and approve the nomination before Putin can assume the post, which is already a foregone conclusion.
In a speech today as the new President, Medvedev vowed to do keep the economy strong as it had been under Putin. In a surprising twist, the new President spoke of the need for Russia to strengthen “civil rights” and “economic freedoms.” He went on to reference the need for strong “civil rights” in Russia throughout the speech.
This is significant because his icy-cold former KGB predecessor, Vladimir Putin, took Russia’s fledgling economy and turned it into an economic powerhouse, while systematically crushing descent, murdering journalists, and rolling back democracy.
While it’s unlikely that Medvedev will stray from Putin’s policies too much, (since Putin will be in the office next door) there’s a chance he may act more like a President than a dictator.
-Chris Jones
Putin Denies Impending Divorce, Moscow Paper Shut Down
Earlier this afternoon a story began circling the globe that Russian President Vladimir Putin was about to divorce his wife in secret and was preparing to marry 22-year old Russian gymnast Alina Kabayeva.
Putin caught wind of the story when he was asked a question about it during a press conference in Sardinia with Italian Prime Minister-elect, Silvio Berlusconi.
He was furious at the question and reacted angrily:
There is not one word of truth in what you have said,” he told the journalist who asked the question.
“I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives,” the former KGB spy said.
I find it mighty ironic that the former boss of the KGB would be lecturing anyone about “prowling” into people’s lives. That said, I suspect other journalists (the ones who aren’t in jail) probably won’t be writing any more stories about President Putin considering what happened next.
Two hours after the press conference, the newspaper in Moscow that originally reported the story was shuttered and its news room fell dark. The paper’s publisher, National Media Company, issued a short press release saying the paper had “suspended publication” until it can come up with “a new concept.”
When reached for comment, the head of National Media Company, Artyom Artyomov, said the sudden closing of the paper had nothing to do with the Putin story.
“There is no question of any political background behind the decision to suspend the newspaper’s publication,” he said.
“We will decide on a new concept for the newspaper and a business plan for its development in the near future.
Not long after that the paper’s website also went dark.
-Chris Jones
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