Chris Doss, or anyone, what do you make of Putin's wacko remarks on circumcision the other day? The intro to an RFE/RL piece on JRL said:
>Russia: Putin's Statements On Chechnya May Reflect Public Opinion
>By Gregory Feifer
>
>Russian President Vladimir Putin's vitriolic speech against Chechen rebels
>issued on the heels of this week's EU-Russia summit may have surprised the
>West, but at home, the remarks have caused barely a ripple. Instead of
>causing embarrassment, Putin's coarse language and denunciation of the
rebels
>as murderers is viewed as giving voice to the public's views on Chechnya.
The
>president is seen to be actively projecting the country's interests, while
>the European Union simply refuses to accept "international terrorism" as a
>threat. But by chastising those calling for a peaceful solution in
Chechnya,
>is Russia threatening to export its brutal conflict abroad?
Does he always talk about hacking off phalli, or was this an unusual outburst?
And years ago Spy magazine had a piece claiming that Gorby spoke vulgar, rube-ish Russian. Is that true?
Doug ---- I think Putin was tired after a long day and pissed off. He tends to lose his composure when talking about Chechnya anyway.
BTW, Feifer, who used to work here, is well-known as a self-hating Russian emigree. RFE/RL is largely a US propaganda outlet.
Putin's rhetoric tends to be very reserved. When he was running for election in the wake of the 1999 bombings, which were blamed on Chechen extremists, though, he did famously say "We will wipe them out even in the shithouse," which played well with a Russian population scared witless of having their apartment buildings come crumbling down around them in their sleep.
Gorby comes from a provinvial peasant Ukrainian family. He speaks with a provincial dialect. In Russia, where etiquette snobism runs deep, this makes him sound like a hillbilly. He makes wierd, and quite funny, mistakes, e.g., he will say "Ya nePIsal," putting the stress on the second syllable, meaning "I urinated," instead of "Ya na piSAL," "I wrote." In fact he's a well educated man, though not of spectacular intellect in my opinion. If you want rube, look at Khrushchev.