Here's an opportunity for in input from Russian-speaking readers. It seems Ellustrator is trying to show a Russian (Vladimir Putin) speaking Russian with an Indian accent and looking at a photo of Gandhi. Putin is recently reported to have said: "Since the death of Gandhi I haven't had anyone to talk to." The western press generally translated this (also correctly, since this was his meaning) as: "Since Gandhi, I've been the only one (true democrat)." Some Russophiles have claimed that Putin wasn't serious in claiming to be a democrat, attempting to use the first translation rather than the second to show that since he wasn't alive when Gandhi was, he wasn't serious. If they're right, it's a horrifying thing to contemplate that Putin would joke about such an issue while enmeshed in massive world criticizm over his anti-democratic moves, hardly a presidential thing to do (not unlike when he joked about rape in front of an official Israeli delegation). LR would find it much more disturbing that he would joke about such a subject than that he would actually believe he's a democrat. The latter only implies mental infirmity; the former implies pure evil. Russians all over the internet have been having a good time with this statement. They've been poking fun at Putin, as if he had some lifetime love of Gandhi as has been longing for him daily since his death. The caption has Putin rambling on about how centralizing power (building the "verticals of power" as they call it in russian) will lead him to Nirvana, and how a third term is his Karma/destiny. But it seems that perhaps there's something else going on in Ellustrator's mind as well, like maybe it's a takeoff on an actual Hindu prayer based on a remembrance of the time when Indian culture was a fad in the Soviet Union as the USSR tried to expand its influence in South Asia. Further commentary from Russians would be most interesting.


The leaders of Western Europe (Germany, France and the U.K.) shove Bush towards Putin and tell him: "Now go tell him what we think about him, and whatever you do, DON'T LOOK INTO HIS EYES!"

NB: These are LR staff translations, our professional translators have nothing to do with them. We'll be delighted to be informed of any errors.