Happy Putin to spread his warmth from the presidential throne once again

[Ari Rahikkala]

http://www.theage.com.au/world/change-may-put-putin-back-in-charge-20081113-668j.html

RUSSIA'S parliament will rush through a constitutional amendment that could see Vladimir Putin return to the presidency within weeks.

Amid growing signs of panic in the Kremlin, the State Duma said it would meet today to pass legislation that could allow Mr Putin to return to the top job for 12 years.

Giving short shrift to Russia's 1993 constitution, all three readings of the bill will be compressed into a single sitting, rather than dragged out over weeks or months as convention dictates.

The proposal to extend the time a president can serve from two consecutive terms of four years to two consecutive terms of six was made by Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian leader, just last week.

Existing constitutional restrictions forced Mr Putin to stand down in May after completing two consecutive four-year terms. He did not go far, however, changing jobs to become Prime Minister.

Few expect Mr Medvedev to mount a challenge should he be asked to go. Even so, political analysts had predicted that Mr Putin would wait for his protege to serve a full four-year term before replacing him in 2012. Opinion has quickly shifted, however, as the financial crisis has taken hold, threatening the wealth of Russia's oligarchs and power brokers.

With oil and commodity prices sliding and fortunes dissolving, analysts say that an uneasy truce between the Kremlin's rival factions is in danger of disintegrating.

"It is evident that there has been a collapse in the consensus of the Kremlin's elite factions," said Dmitry Oreshkin, a leading political analyst.

Another Kremlin analyst, Olga Kryshtanovskaya, said: "One scenario we could see is the creation of a mini-USSR by joining together Russia, Belarus and South Ossetia and making Putin the leader of the union."

Russia.

[Eli]

"joining together Russia, Belarus and South Ossetia"

Quoted for ridiculousness.

[Zevico]

All the people welcome the great leader Putin to the world stage once more.

[BeBMan]

More :HappyPutin:

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace.

The Russian Prime Minister had revealed his plans for disposing of Mr Saakashvili when Mr Sarkozy was in Moscow in August to broker a ceasefire in Georgia.

Jean-David Levitte, Mr Sarkozy’s chief diplomatic adviser, reported the exchange in a news magazine before an EU-Russia summit today. The meeting will be chaired by the French leader and President Medvedev.

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.
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Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

Mr Saakashvili, who was in Paris to meet Mr Sarkozy yesterday, laughed nervously when a French radio station read him the exchange. “I knew about this scene, but not all the details. It’s funny, all the same,” he said.

Mr Putin’s remarks confirmed that he was calling the shots in Moscow and not Mr Medvedev, who was Mr Sarkozy’s official host at the Kremlin meeting. The language was in keeping with Mr Putin’s fondness for coarse imagery: in 1999 he vowed to chase down Chechen separatists wherever they were — “we will rub them out in their s***houses,” he said.

In Brussels in 2002 he threatened a French journalist with circumcision — remarks that the news conference interpreter failed to translate. “I will recommend that they carry out the operation in such a way that nothing grows back,” he added.

Mr Sarkozy’s team leaked their exchange to bolster their claim that the French President’s intervention saved Georgia — or at least its leader — from further torment. They want to counter charges that he ceded too much in Europe’s name by accepting the Russian annexation of the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Mr Saakashvili denounced Mr Sarkozy for that, saying Europe’s acquiescence over Georgia was identical to its appeasement of Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. “I never imagined that I would be saying such things but unfortunately those are the facts,” he said.

Mr Sarkozy, who is under fire for his cosy relations with the two Russian leaders, hit back with sarcasm and an attack on Mr Bush for his supposed impotence towards Russia. Mr Bush had telephoned him and urged him repeatedly not to fly to Moscow to negotiate a ceasefire, he said. “When someone had to leave for Moscow or Tbilisi, who defended human rights?” Mr Sarkozy asked.

“Was it the President of the United States who said, ‘this is unacceptable’? Or was it France which kept up the dialogue [with Russia]? . . . We were in Moscow and, as if by chance, the ceasefire was announced.” He was speaking after receiving an annual Political Courage Prize from a French review.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5147422.ece

[Dinner]

THIS IS PROOF RUSSIA IS A DEMOCRACY!

[/Serb]

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Eli
"joining together Russia, Belarus and South Ossetia"

Quoted for ridiculousness.

Well, South Ossetia does want to be annexed by Russia while Belarus is a basket case who would probably like someone to rescue them if only their dictator wasn't deathly afraid of longer being President for life.

BTW:

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

Awesome!

[Eli]

That's not what I meant.

South Ossetia doesn't belong in that sentence. It's negligible. It's like discussing an alliance between the United States and an eskimo village.

[Dinner]

Agreed.

[Traianvs]

It would be a good thing for Georgia to give up SO to let it join Putin's dominium, and perhaps letting Abkhazia declare independence. Georgia has been trying to annex the two territories since '92 but has failed repeatedly.

That means it's time to face the facts and bury the hatchett.

[Arrian]

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

MISTAKES: Sometimes your purpose in life is to be a warning to others.

-Arrian

[Sprayber]

I wonder what Obama will see in Putin's eyes when he looks into them?

[Blaupanzer]

He should see K G B assassin. That's what is behind those eyes.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Eli
That's not what I meant.

South Ossetia doesn't belong in that sentence. It's negligible. It's like discussing an alliance between the United States and Canada.

Fixed.

[KrazyHorse]

If Canada had a population of ~100 000 then possibly.

[Deity Dude]

I wonder what Obama will see in Putin's eyes when he looks into them?

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
He should see K G B assassin. That's what is behind those eyes.

Dialogue.