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Saturday, July 08, 2006

More Blatant Russian Hypocrisy

The New York Times reports that, despite viciously attacking Americans for their interest in Bill Clinton's personal life and their failure to take action to correct American "aggression" in Yugoslavia and Iraq, Russians when given the chance ignored issueslike Chechnya and racism (to say nothing of plunging population) in favor of personal questions about Putin and bizarre ramblings about science fiction, indicating Russians (at least those with access to the Internet, granted a limited group due to Russia's impoverished financial state) are unhinged from reality.

President Vladimir V. Putin went digital on Thursday, participating in an online question-answer session with Russian and foreign internet users. The forum, which was organized by the popular Russian web-browser Yandex.ru and the BBC, lasted 2 hours 10 minutes, Gazeta reported, during which time the president answered about 40 questions. The president promised to answer more of the 162,000 questions he received at another time, Gazeta said. According to Vremya Novostei, the most popular questions submitted by participants related to Mr. Putin's personal life. One user asked when the president lost his virginity. Another frequently asked question was whether Russia would legalize marijuana, Izvestia reported. Mr. Putin responded saying that "Russia is an adherent to an international agreement which considers marijuana among those drugs that are officially forbidden."
When allowed to vote on which questions Putin should be asked, in the early going it was reported that "nearly a million Russian had voted on some 140,000 questions for the Russian leader, including some offbeat ones. The top vote getter asks whether Russia would use humanoid robots to defend itself." In the end, that question ended up in second place and the most popular question was "about "Medved," a voyeuristic bear that has appeared in a sexually explicit drawing popular in Russian Internet circles. Twenty-nine thousand Internet users wanted to know Putin's opinion of Medved." In fourth place "at 16,682 votes, was a pointed inquiry about Cthulhu, the octopus-like creature that sleeps at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Cthulhu was hatched by the American writer H.P. Lovecraft. 'What is your opinion about waking up Cthulhu?' Viktor, 29, of Moscow, wrote in to the president."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be exact, Putin did answers "some 40
questions about Iran, Ukraine, Chechnya, racism and the Russian standard of living," as the Moscow Times reported. The full interview is available to view on the BBC website. The strange questions put to Putin were funny rather than worrying. They were probably intended as a prank to put Putin in an embarassing position, which is hardly such a bad thing.

La Russophobe said...

So, let's get this straight: When Americans do things like this, they are hillbilly morons. When Russians do them, they are clever comedians, adding much-needed levity. If Americans reelect George Bush despite Iraq, they are crazed, irresponsible fools. But if Russians reelect Vlad Putin despite Chechnya, they are wise responsible citizens.

Surely you jest.

Russia is teetering on the verge of extinction and all Russians can think about is magical octopi. That is Russia in a nutshell, always has been, always will be.

Anonymous said...

Reith: Russians get one of the first opportunties they've had in a thousand years of history to question their ruler directly, their top choices for questions are about warrior robots and the president's sex practices, and you find that "funny." With friends like you, Russia doesn't need any enemies.

Anonymous said...

LR:

Not a single one of the views you charge me with are ones I have either put forward in my original remark or hold myself, so I am uncertain as to why you raise them. The questions that topped the poll, as I actually said, did so because people found them funny and, probably, potentially embarassing to Putin. Furthermore, many people did in fact ask about Chechnya and racism, as you demanded.

Gomavsgo,

Almost every single thing you say in your short remark is wrong. This was not the first opportunity people have had to call in and ask Putin questions. If you had only bothered to read one of the helpfully provided links above, you would have found that "it's the third time Putin has taken part in a live Webcast since he was elected in 2000." He has also performed a similar exercise on live television a few times. As I have seen some of those broadcasts, as you clearly have not, I can tell you that even on those occassions people have asked him about Chechnya, the cost of living, wages, salaries and foreign policy, among other things.
That said, it is funny that he was asked about robots and sex-crazed bears. It is a highly peculiar opinion that you appear to espouse that being "funny" is such a terrible thing. I would conclude on that basis that people like you don't even have friends in the first place.

Anonymous said...

What is so bad in funny questions? Internet community are mostly teenagers and young people, teenagers often make fun. So, why couldn't they make fun with their president?

Anonymous said...

"So, why couldn't they make fun with their president?"

Because LR is living in a totalitarian society. When you make fun the president Bush, you support Bib Laden!!! Just like under communism... The party is always right.

If you check blog history, you would notice that LR idealizes Rush Limbaugh. A fat idiot who does drugs and who was a sex tourist in the Dominican Republic.

I bet she watches O'reilly factor all the time:-)

La Russophobe said...

REITH: You've been challenged by a commenter here

http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/07/neo-soviet-union-once-again-silences.html

Are you going to answer the challenge?

Anonymous said...

Karmen, it's rather sad that you would ask that question, especially since you clearly failed to read what I wrote first.

It's said for two reasons: (a) Russian is not America, Russia has a long history of dictatorship and therefore can't afford to joke about chances like this; (b)Russians attacked America for being interested in Bill Clinton's personal life, as LR says, but now they act just like that themselves. That's hypocrisy, another serious problem in Russia.

Anonymous said...

Reith, it's shameful the way you mischaracterize what I wrote. I didn't say it was THE first I said it was ONE OF THE first.

I don't care to exchange views with someone who writes in such gross bad faith.

I'll just say that if you think Russia democracy has sufficiently developed to the point it can afford to joke about the topic, you are a very silly, uninformed person.

La Russophobe said...

REITH: We agree that you have grossly perverted the statement of GOMAVSGO and demand that you apologize. Your lies about La Russophobe are one thing, about commenters/readers another, and will not be tolerated.

La Russophobe said...

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