Pave: Mutual Admiration Society: Jack & Vlad

Le jour 390 de Sarko

Talk about poodles!

These ten years [Mr. Putin's two-year premiership and eight-year presidency] have been, unquestionably, great years for Russia.

Now Ex-Jack,
sliding his nose deep into the Russian Premier's wink
May 30, 2008 (Press TV)

PUTIN'S POODLE
Rolls Over And Begs
[Original graphic (unmodified): obeythepurebreed.com*]

Great years? Yeah, well, not so great for Anna Politkovskaya. Not so great for Larisa Arap. Not so great for Alexander Litvinenko. Not so great for Garry Kasparov. Not so great for Roman Nikolaichik. Not so great for Leonid Rozhetskin. Not so great for Anna Mikhalchuk. And not so great for Eduard Markevich, Natalya Skryl, Valery Ivanov, Valery Ivanov, Paul Khlebnikov, and Yevgeny Gerasimenko.

Not so great for, well, for Russia. And not so great for Russian democracy (the technical evidence here). Some not so "great" spillover (and here and here and here).

Here is a more informed opinion than Ex-Jack's on the "great years" for Putin (this is samizdat, forbidden reading in Russia).

Fawning Ex-Jack went on to say:

There could be no balance in the world without a strong Russia.

For examples, Russian balance in Chechnya (and here); in Georgia; in Estonia (and here); in the EU; in Sudan (and here and here and here and here); in Iran (and here).

Of course, when one so lovingly applies the lips and tongue to Mr. Putin's heinie, one expects to find a little treat down there.

JACQUES CHIRAC RECEIVES STATE PRIZE

May 21, 2008 (kommersant.com) - Former French president Jacques Chirac has been awarded the 2007 State Prize of the Russian Federation for humanitarian activities, it was announced yesterday. The award acknowledges Chirac’s services in the development of cultural ties between France and Russia.

... Chirac was known during his presidency not only for his admiration of Russian culture, but for his closeness to Putin [and this and here]. Chirac was criticized in the West for supporting Moscow in many issues. ... In 2000, however, Putin met with Chirac after the European Union – Russia summit in Paris and their relations blossomed. Then they were unified when France, Germany and Russia refused to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Meanwhile, criticism of Russia’s record on Chechnya, democracy and human rights gradually disappeared in official statements by France. France and Germany also tempered the desires of many new members of the EU to take a harsher tone in relation to Russia.

In 2006, Chirac awarded Putin the French order of the Legion of Honor. That award was widely criticized in France and beyond its borders. Reporters without Borders called the award "unworthy of France" and "an insult to those who fight for freedom of speech in Russia." Chirac was in the center of a number of scandals** when he left office last year, the same year [of his] Russian State Prize.

------------------------------------
* A parody of Shepard Fairey's Obey Giant, "an experiment in phenomenology" with no real message. When Mr. Fairey, a talented and funny propagandist, has a message, alas, it is the usual millimeter deep lefty rant.

** And here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here

PFFT (What is this?): Old boy log-rolling 4½ | Ex-Jack still working to keep France snug in Russia's shadow 5 | Rayonnement français ½