During a recent panel conference in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin cupped his hand around a microphone and joked, in a loud stage whisper, that he was planning on meddling in the 2020 US elections.
“I’ll tell you a secret: yes, we’ll definitely do it. Just don’t tell anyone,” he said.
It’s not the first time he’s turned fact or fear into folly; Putin has a penchant for cracking jokes about serious issues. Some may be objectively funny, some abhorrently sexist and others just plain weird.
In 2013, while visiting a school in Siberia, Putin tested the capabilities of an interactive whiteboard — by drawing a cat’s bum. He told the class of chuckling students “this is for you to remember me”. The gag just goes to show that, no matter how terrified the students were, butt jokes will never fail to get a laugh.
When addressing Russia’s meddling in the US election in 2017, Putin joked that Russia’s foreign minister would have to be reprimanded for “not sharing these secrets with me or the intelligence services”.
Sitting in the Kremlin in 2018 with then-US security adviser John Bolton, Putin gestured to the official seal of the US — which includes a bald eagle holding a bundle of 13 arrows in one talon and an olive branch with 13 olives in another — and asked, “Has your eagle picked all the olives and only has arrows left?” This one might be funnier in Russian.
He was on fire at his annual press conferences. When a journalist mentioned another candidate wanted to run for president, Putin responded, “Of what country?” He also joked that a palace coup couldn’t be possible as Russia has a Kremlin and not a palace, and when asked about his health, he quipped, “Don’t hold your breath!” When a journalist asked, with slurred words, Putin about drinking, he replied, “You’ve already had yours.” (It later emerged the journalist had survived multiple strokes.)
When asked if his aides had relayed any of the jokes made about him, Putin joked “No, they are afraid to tell me”. But this one has some truth to it. Joking about Putin can land residents behind bars.
Apparently, Putin can dish it out, but he sure can’t take it.
Is there a point to this?
None whatever except obligatory Putin-bashing by uninformed journalistic hacks like the author of this piece. So Putin has a sense of humour? Well, blow me down. Yes, he has a twinkle in his eye when makes jokes of this sort because he understands perfectly well, and has said so, that he regards the “Russian meddling” paranoia in the Anglo countries as a product of their internal political turmoil only. Perhaps “dignified disdain” is a better phrase.
If our Amber wants to write about Putin she could perhaps visit his website and see what is happening in the real world. For example, yesterday, 3 October 2019 he addressed the Valdai International Discussion Club session in Sochi. The session was attended by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, King of Jordan Abdullah II, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, with whom he held sideline meetings. The day before, 2 October 2019, he addressed the Russian Energy Week International Forum plenary meeting in Moscow. Attended by thousands of participants representing energy interests across the Eurasian Union Project , serious discussions were had about supply, security and cooperation in guaranteeing energy supplies across that bloc of nations. While we here in Oziland just chirp away like crickets. Pull your finger out, Amber.
I think you miss the point completely. Of course he is meddling, he is an old KGB man and a cunning one at that. After watching the Russian businessman financed Farage and the numbskulled Boris destroy the EU and Trump disintegrate NATO, I cannot see why is he not laughing himself silly more often.
I think you need to understand the difference between political leadership and “Russian businessmen”. The “Oligarch” class stems from those highly talented CEO’s who ran the vast state-owned industrial enterprises of the USSR. Though relatively well-paid they knew their counterparts in the West not only earned far higher salaries but also owned big chunks of those enterprises. They hated the soviet system and were overjoyed when it collapsed as it enabled them to scoop up these formerly publicly-owned assets during the free-for-all of the 1990’s, and shift as much wealth as they could overseas. When Putin came in he was able to bring many of them under some kind of control, like by majority state re-acquisition of strategic assets, and various deals to make them bring their money home. Those with assets still overseas may well be buying politicians and other nefarious activities, but as private individuals with their own agendas. As for Putin’s attitude, I suggest it is along the lines of “when your adversary is self-destructing, don’t stand in his way.”
Is Vlad related to Ras?
“Vlad” is short for Vladislav. The short form of Vladimir is “Volodya”. Or if close friends, then “Vova”. Any other questions?
This is padding of the most mindless kind.
“Official enemy has bad sense of humour” – shame on you Crikey for this drivel.
Yes Bob. I must say this piece is a last straw for me. I will not be renewing my subscription to Crikey when it expires. I have supported Crikey since its inception, hoping it would prove a genuine, Australia-based alternative media site, but while good at coverage of local political shenanigans, its coverage of foreign affairs has been at best abysmal. I’ve submitted numerous comments based on personal experience as well perspectives gleaned from news as presented in alternative media sites which I visit, trying to correct the disinformation presented here, but too often it’s been a case of casting pearls before swine. Not worth the effort. For those interested, Eric Zuesse has posted a list of what he considers reliable alternative media in this piece from Russia Insider. I concur. My subscription money is better off going to some of them.
https://russia-insider.com/en/media-criticism/boycott-empires-lying-press-heres-handy-list-reliable-alternative-media/ri27652
Not only the genuine in-depth investigative journalism shown in these but in particular the well-informed and INTELLIGENT level of debate in the comments sections, sometimes by contributors actually on-site, demonstrates what on-line journalism ought to be. So farewell Crikey. I’ve given you a fair go.
Iskandar, it’s really only been Rundle keeping me with Crikey for a long time, though there are other writers I enjoy from time to time and I’m very encouraged by the new investigations section.
I think the article you linked makes the mistake of believing my enemy’s enemy is my friend, which seems to be very common among particularly US people who’ve wised up to the compromised nature of their media. RT as a trusted alternative? I don’t think so. An alternative sure and worth listening to, but not one any less compromised than most of our mainstream media.
Also, while the mindless Putin-bashing, such as evidenced here, is idiotic, it is the hypocrisy rather than the untruthfulness of it that irritates me – he is a very unpleasant character, just not so much more unpleasant than his equivalents in the first world. I would consider the current Russian state’s foreign actions much more benign than the US’s though, but by no means a force for good.
Here endeth my rant …
Thanks Bob. I agree that it’s essentially only Rundle that has kept me going here. Though it’s important to shed light into the murky world of Australian politics, my personal overriding interest is in foreign affairs, as my contributions here have shown. I make no secret of the fact that I go alternative media to check the credibility of local reporting, and pulled it up when it was so obviously awry. I linked to Zuesses’s article because I judged it a good summary of such media. And as I mentioned before, the “comments”section of some, such as Saker, provide a venue of intelligent exchange and information that comprise a form of journalism in their own right. Unlike that of certain trolls here, such as the one below.
Regarding Rundle, perhaps he should start his own crowd-funded blog. I would probably subscribe to it.
Indeed Bob. Trumps announcement of his abandoning of the Kurds shows that US foreign policy is as devoid of ethical behaviour as anyone else. On balance I would propose China as the new leader of the sort of free world.
Rabid, I assume that’s some kind of humour …
Putin is a murderous butcher. I see very little in this fluff piece that conveys that actual nature of the beast. So what exactly is the point?
I take it all back. This fluff piece has done a fine job.
Is this buzzfeed?
Glad I cancelled my crikey subscription renewal.