Putin: I'm the heir to Ghandi.

[kirovman]

"Of course, I am a pure and absolute democrat," he said. "But you know what the problem - is not a problem, a real tragedy - that I am alone. There are no such pure democrats in the world. Since Mahatma Gandhi, there has been no one.?

"Let us not be hypocritical on human rights and democratic freedoms," he said in a swipe at other countries, which is his favourite rebuttal technique. "Let us look what is happening in North America. It is horrible - torture, the homeless, Guantanamo, detention without normal court proceedings." In Europe, he said, "we can see violence against demonstrators, the use of gas to disperse rallies".

an arms race is unfolding

He recalled an old joke about Erich Honecker, the last East German leader - you could tell which phone on his desk had the direct line to Moscow because it was the one with only an earpiece. "This is the way that Nato functions," he said, "except that the phone is connected to Washington."

Calling Gordon Brown "a high-class specialist" ? a compliment from one technocrat to another ? he said: "I hope that if he is the head of the British Government, then all the positive achievements [in Russian-British relations] will be recognised and extended."

He obviously likes Gordie's Stalinist style.

As his aides told him delicately that it was approaching midnight, he joked to the table: "Is it I who is torturing you?"

He concluded: "I love sushi myself so I have a stake in this." [reference to the Polonium poisoning?]

Seriously, he's like the statesman equivilent of Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

You couldn't make it up.




http://www***ssianembassy.org/RUSSIA/images/putin.jpg

 

[Adrien C]

Him and Hugo Chavez are the next dictators. I cant believe still this days we keep killing oposition. What happened to democratie?

 

[kirovman]

It was a passing phase.

Don't worry, Rome had a democracy, so I guess it'll be about the year 4000 when we get democracy again.

 

[Icarusintel]

FACT: Gandhi was a dick.

 

[JFry]

Putin is the head vampire.

 

[mortiz]

FACT: Gandhi was a dick.

So is Putin, so maybe he's right!

 

[Baratos]

I was hoping he would turn out like Beria, another member of the KGB. At the end of his life, Beria took a complete U-turn and went from a serial rapist to a hero who freed over a million prisoners in concentration camps.

Now it looks like Putin will remain an asshole until he dies.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Oh christ, he really is mad and evil.

 

[Polaris]

"In Soviet Russia, Ghandi censor you!"
Seriously, this is insane and hypocritical, especially part about Europe and North America.

 

[99.vikram]

FACT: Gandhi was a dick.

Gandhi (that's how he spelled his own name :frownmade many mistakes, but at no point was he as much of a dick as any of his political contemporaries.

 

[Nemesis6]

Maybe Putin has been near those nuclear missiles of his for just a little too long?

 

[Planetary]

Why does he look like a zombie?

Seriously, the only undead guy in the G8.

 

[15357]

I thought putin was a nice guy... :/ Still do, actually.

 

[Nemesis6]

He does kind of look like a ghoul I guess! :-P