Vladimir the Great likes the virile bare-chested look. He's used to showing off his middle-aged pecs while riding white horses on the beach or wrestling bears or something equally manly. It always looked a little silly to us in the West, but I always had the impression that Russians loved it and him. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the anti Putin protests started in the wake of last Sunday's elections.
What is going on? Do Russians really want fair, un-rigged elections? Are they tired of Putin's " managed democracy" and gangster-style corruption? Has the Arab Spring spilled over into Russia? Popular protests against vote rigging are in their third day in Moscow and St. Petersburg. and more than 30,000 people have signed a Facebook petition calling for a massive demonstration on Saturday in Moscow's Revolution Square. The government has warned that if things get out of hand, there will be reprisals.
Maybe Vladimir is not such a big man after all Today he is hiding behind a woman's skirts. It seems he has accused American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, of causing all the trouble. Here's a quote from The Moscow Times: Click on the link to read the whole article.
"Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday of instigating the public protests against the State Duma elections as tens of thousands signed up to rally over the weekend.
But Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev made ambiguous remarks about the protesters themselves, conceding that they have the right to rally but calling on the police to crack down on those who break the law.
Preparations were under way in Moscow for a new rally against the victory of Putin's United Russia party on Saturday, with almost 30,000 signed up on Facebook on late Thursday."
Man up, Vladimir, Stop blaming Hillary for your problems and put your shirt back on, would you?.
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