Nature Lover Vladimir Putin Flies With the Cranes 285
Hugh Pickens writes "Russian President Vladimir Putin is a nature lover. In 2007, the bare-chested president rode a horse through Siberia. In 2008, he fired a tranquilizer gun at a rare Siberian tiger. In 2010, he used a crossbow to shoot darts at an enormous whale in a fog-shrouded bay to collect tissue samples. Now Der Spiegel reports that on his way east to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Putin stopped at the Arctic Circle to fulfill a mission for which the Kremlin says he prepared assiduously for a year and a half: helping to save an endangered species of crane. In a meadow some 2,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow, Putin donned a white jumpsuit and black aviator goggles before swinging himself into the seat of an ultralight aircraft and as loudspeakers played the recorded call of a mother crane, Putin lifted off and a group of orphaned white Siberian cranes followed, allowing the aircraft to lead them south toward their winter habitat. On the first attempt, only one of the young cranes followed him up, which Putin said was because a high tail wind had caused the hang glider to accelerate too fast. On the second attempt, five birds followed Putin, but only two stuck with him for the full 15-minute flight. Putin's flight, given many minutes of airtime on Russian television, provoked an array of contemptuous jokes on the Internet, one of the most popular being: 'So Putin is off to wintering with cranes. Does this mean he's not going to be back before spring?' The Russian president, however, hit back at critics telling reporters at the conclusion of APEC summit that, 'It's true that not all flew right away, but the ones that didn't fly were the weak cranes' apparently alluding to the errant ways of those involved in protests that have hit Russia over the last year."
Re:Good ol' Putin (Score:5, Informative)
Fuck Putin (Score:3, Informative)
2 years in prison for a song protesting him? I hope he burns in hell and history remembers him for the despot he is!
Re:Unlikely as it seems (Score:3, Informative)
"(a recession deliberately started by her government to justify a reduction in worker rights),"
What utter cobblers. The recession was a result of the previous labour govns spend spend spend policy (sound familiar?) combined with bloody minded unions who went on strike or work to rule over their "rights" at the drop of a hat and made UK industry even more uncompetetive than the lazy morons had managed even up until that point. You're obviously old enough to remember the power cuts in the 70s as I am due to endless miners strikes which - thanks to Thatcher - finally ended as she switched britain over to a lot more gas generation so the country could no longer be held hostage by a bunch of inbred ditch diggers.
"the future of British industry looked bleak,"
Mainly thanks to the unions. But lets not let reality get in the way of your left wing blinkered nonsense.
Re:Good ol' Putin (Score:0, Informative)
Morons like you are utterly unhinged.
Look around and who has been killing, oppressing, invading, and corrupting around the world. Hint: Russia does not rate very highly compared with some.
Re:Good ol' Putin (Score:4, Informative)
I personally know a few people living in Kiev. They hardly get buy, living on $200 per month. Sure, there are a lot of shops selling fancy stuff, but these catering to the rich people since middle class is almost not existant in Ukraine. And if you didn't notice anyone starving on the street, then you have only visited the tourist places, not the back street alleys.
Re:Unlikely as it seems (Score:4, Informative)
my grandmother was pushed back in the queue for a new apartmen
That sounds unfortunate. Many people have to wait up to a decade for new social housing in the UK, especially since Thatcher sold much of it
In a capitalist country she could have bought herself a 1 bedroom in much less time than that just by working almost anywhere, and she wouldn't have to wait for 22 years, given the fact that in capitalist countries it was (still is) possible to get a loan, a mortgage.
Certainly not in the UK - mortgages are such that no single person on minimum wage would be able to save up for a ~10% deposit, let alone be offered a 90% mortgage.
1 was that they brought in some families from Cuba and placed them there, because of the 'Cuban brothers' who were also Communists of-course, their gov't needed to be shown how well people are treated in USSR.
Yeah, the BNP complain about immigrants taking social housing in the UK all the time too.
Another time was actually simpler than that, somebody with real connections to a local (regional) party leader wanted to have an apartment for their offspring. You think they had to wait for years for this?
Probably not. In my local town, planning corruption is awful - you can pretty much do what you want wrt/ buildings if you grease the right palms. Not sure about assignment of housing per se. Knowing an MP mysteriously seems to sort out most local hurdles in a few days, though. Feeling nostalgic yet?
7 of who got killed only on one side of the family because they had a farm... owned a shoe factory... in their possession part of a forest and a river and even a village...
I assume this was a Stalinist kulak purge. I am sorry. It would have been sufficient to nationalise these things and there was no need to harm the old owners.
As to Thatcher, she inherited a situation, which was so dire, here is what the former PM (before she came to power) said about it:
You mean that Labour's Callaghan inherited a situation made awful by Tory Heath. While Callaghan tried to reform policy (not in the cleverest manner!), Thatcher decided to destroy Britain out of irrational hatred for certain parts of society.