Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been visiting Russia, and recently had a meeting with Russian President Valdimir Putin in the Kremlin.
According to yesterday’s Kommersant, the two leaders discussed various important matters, such as the passage of Russian arms through Syrian hands to Hizbullah, and the status of an Orthodox church in Jerusalem being used by the Israeli government as an office building.
But then there was this little tidbit, referring to the rape charges recently leveled at Israeli President Moshe Katsav:
After that, the press was ushered out, and the president apparently thought the microphones had been turned off. “Say hi to your president,” Putin said. “He turned out to be quite a powerful person! Raped ten women! We’re all amazed. We all envy him!”
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Wotta stud muffin, that president of yours! He’s the kind of guy we Russians can really identify with!
Do you think this will get as much press as did the open-mike gaffes of Condi Rice and George Bush?
Or, to put it another way, how many of you had heard about it before you read it here?
Hat tip: Wally Ballou.
Hey, Putin and his cronies have gotten away with murdering journalists, political intimidation and attacks on private businesses, thuggish shutdowns of media outlets, mass slaughter in Chechnya and completely trashing the rule of law and republican system in Russia.
I think that getting away with raping ten women would be anti-climactic for him at this point…
I think Putin was joking. I’ve seen such in Russian movies, too. You might think it in poor taste, but I don’t think it was an endorsement of rape.
I’m not even going to mention Bill Clinton (Whoops, there I go mentioning him). His reaction was probably: “Only ten?”
Chuck —
Joke or not, it’s incredible that one head of state could say this to a prime minister about the latter’s head of state. It goes beyond mere tastelessness (if it was only tasteless, I wouldn’t have cared).
What does it say about the mind of the man, that he would think it was OK and normal to joke this way?
It reminds me of a comment, that Disraeli is supposed to have made, when he heard that Palmeston, who was in his 80’s was having an affair with a young women in her 30’s. He was asked if they should publish it. Disraeli is supposed to have said “ What! and have him win the Election”. Our Victorian forefathers were no such prudes as we think. Palmestone by the way is supposed to have died shortly after from a heart attack while havin sex with a servant girl on a billard table at a country house in Leicester which is about a hundred miles north of London.
I guess ol’ Vlad didn’t draw the moral from President Reagan’s famous “I’ve just signed legislation that outlaws Russia forever; we begin bombing in five minutes” gaffe.
Whilst not in good taste, it’s possible he was trying to make a joke about the press hounding the Israeli president, which they undoubtedly have been doing.
It’s not for no reason they’re called newshounds…
Given the Russian birthrate, Rutin may not have been cracking a joke. Maybe he’ll take inspiration from the rape of the Sabine women.
Totally tasteless. Such a macho. But like Bush, sometimes makes supergaffes that clearly show their flaws.
Hah…it’s called Russian Black Humour. End of story.
The one thing that I have learned is that humor does not travel well across boundaries. The same applies here. Mr Putin’s remarks are tasteless but the fact that they did not travel across Jewish-Russian cultural barrier should not be used against Mr Putin.
I only have to travel across the Baltic to Sweden to find out that Swedish sense of humor does not resonate with me (or any other Finn for that matter).
Besides, Putin’s failed attempt at humor was not the most important issue in the informal meeting between EU leaders.
Putin himself came under some press scrutiny when he pulled a young ( about 6) boys t-shirt up and kissed him on the belly.
If you saw the photograph of the incident it wasn’t very appealing!
Putin is an ex KGB man and is far too sinister for my tastes. Give me
Boris Yeltsin anyday.
Baron,
Putin’s tasteless comment may have been envy, not a joke. Who knows what he did as a KGB operative. The KGB did torture and rape female dissidents during the USSR period.
chsw (another Chuck)
Russian Black Humour always includes traces of truth twisted along with sarcasm, sprinkled with transparent sadism a-la-Russ…
The Russians are mostly ruthless, corrupt, sadistic crooks with no regard to human life. Their Ghengis Khan blood started flowing in their vains after The Russes were raped for 200 years by Ghengis’s legions.
Their barbarian qualities intesified even more during the years of the USSR, where most ordinary citizens were thrown into jail for insignificant deeds and women had not too many choices but to rely on selling their bodies (physical appearance), to get ahead in life. Poverty brought out the thuggishness of their barbarian tendencies to the surface.
Therefore, i am not surprised that Putin, as a former (sophisticated sadistic) KGB agent made that comment.
It’s nothing to frown about, nor a reason for rejoicing. It’s simply a fact. So deal with it and move on with being cautious when dealing with Russians.
What’s the big deal with Putin’s remark?
The Russians kicked Chechnyan ass, and they can still be of some use to us in the war on Islam, so I think we should cut them some slack.