Good old Vladimir Putin

[Chris James]

The recent remarks of the Russian leader deserve to be in this thread. While most of his KGB buddies integrated into the Russian mafia to continue plundering the state old Vlad went one up on them by becoming the head of the country.

Just how genuine is this man? The current sound bites of his life are so disjointed as to be absurd, here's another one:

http://www.advocate.com/news/world-news/2014/01/20/vladimir-putin-has-gay-friends

Gay friends? I feel pity for the gay people he claims to know. Vlad is one of those love me or rot in prison kind of guys. But who knows, maybe he sees those gay friends on visitor's day.

[Jeff Ellis]

You have to marvel at Putin. Here he is attempting to persuade the Ukraine that they would prefer to associate with Russia rather than the European Union, while at the same time giving one in six of the Ukraine's population the very best of reasons for not wanting anything to do with him.