Showing his barbaric, Neo-Soviet true nature, the serpant known as Vladimir Putin has spit out the first blast of icy cold-war rhetoric, as the Associated Press reports:

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Vice President Dick Cheney ahead of this weekend's G8 summit, calling his recent criticisms of Russia "an unsuccessful hunting shot," according to a television interview being broadcast Wednesday. The remark, from an interview with NBC, referred to shotgun blast by Cheney on a hunting trip that accidently wounded a companion. Cheney, in a May speeh in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania, accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail." Asked about Cheney's remarks, Putin said, "I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot. It's pretty much the same."

Putin's only real friend in America is George Bush, and just on the eve of hosting America for an international conference Putin launches a vicous personal attack on his beloved partner! This is the classically self-destructive behavior of the crazed Neo-Soviet Russian nationalist, unable to follow his own best interests, driven forward by crude ignorance and barbaric hatred to destroy himself. Perhaps Russians will view these remarks as "funny" just as they did Zhirinovksy's desire to take back Alaska from America. Perhaps they can't see the hypocrisy that is clear when they refuse to allow Americans to joke about topics Russians don't find funny. Perhaps they don't see that by failing to confront Putin about anything, they have created a Frankenstein who knows no limits, just like the old Polituburo.

But this will be viewed in history as the first shot that was fired in Cold War II, the one that erased Russia from the face of the earth. America is the most powerful nation on earth and has a host of allies. Russia is a third-world state teetering on the brink of extinction even without a Cold War to worry about. Putin's remarks are insane, just like pulling up a little boy's shirt on a public street.

Can you imagine how Russians would react if Cheney chose to attack Putin's policies by making veiled references to Putin being a pedophile or having stolen his PhD? Perhaps you soon won't have to imagine.

And can you imagine what life in Russia will be like when America lauches a program to fully utilize the Canadian oil shales which can make the U.S. energy sufficient, and then cuts off purchases from Russia, solely because of this insane provocation from Putin? How about when Russia's oil simply runs out or, much sooner, the Chinese come to simply take it?

How about when America drives forward the assimilation of Ukraine and Georgia into Ukraine?

How about when it recognizes the rebel government of Chechnya just the way Russia did Hamas?

Truly, those who can't remember history are doomed to repeat it. And remember, the guy who said that wasn't Russian.