Putin channels Borat:
President Vladimir Putin has a penchant for making pithy, acerbic, sometimes coarse comments. On Wednesday a microphone inadvertently left on during a brief appearance with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel captured his views on the sex scandal involving Israel’s president.
According to published accounts by Agence France-Presse late Wednesday and Kommersant and the Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Putin was heard saying, “Say hello to your president,” to Olmert, referring to President Moshe Katsav, who could face criminal charges that he raped and assaulted two former employees. Putin added, “He really surprised us.” The microphone was quickly turned off as reporters were ushered from the room, but the news organizations reported that Putin went on.
“We did not know he could deal with 10 women,” he said, according to the Post and Agence France-Presse accounts, apparently referring to the complaints by several women that Katsav harassed them or worse.
Kommersant’s version ‚Äî citing the remarks in Russian ‚Äî was cruder. “He turned out to be quite a powerful man,” the paper’s reporter in the official Kremlin pool, Andrei Kolesnikov, quoted Putin as saying. “He raped 10 women. I never expected it from him. He surprised all of us. We all envy him.”
What a knee-slapper. Although I guess it is better than channeling Michael Jackson.
