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."
Good ol' Putin (Score:5, Insightful)
I could have sworn I typed "slashdot.org" just now (Score:4, Insightful)
Fuck this guy (Score:5, Insightful)
He should rather care about independent journalists - the most endangered species in Russia.
Is /. being paid for these kind of articles?
Re:I could have sworn I typed "slashdot.org" just (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. I read the submission twice. Then checked some comments. Then went back and read the submission a third time. I was sure I was missing something, somewhere. This has nothing to do with tech or nerds. It barely even qualifies as politics, for that matter. This belongs on Good Morning America or some other drivel.
Re:Good ol' Putin (Score:5, Insightful)
My wife comes from Ukraine. It might not be great now was NOT better in the 1970s. I don't know where you get your facts from but I'd find a new source other than Marxism Today if I were you.
Re:Good ol' Putin (Score:5, Insightful)
"said his wife thought it was better in the 70s under communist rule"
Other way around. Her opinion is it was a lot worse then bar a few things here and there. She still remembers food and fuel queues and of having to be very careful what you said in public. The only people who pine for those days are deluded western communists who can spout their rubbish thanks to the free society that was never enjoyed by the citizens of the USSR.
Isn't it odd how these self style "intellectual" lefties loved the idea of communism except when applied to themselves since hardly any actually went to live in the USSR (and even the ones who did usually did only to escape being tried for treason , eg philby & co). You'd think if it was such a workers paradise they'd have been on the first plane to Moscow as soon as they were out of short trousers.
Re:Good ol' Putin (Score:4, Insightful)
Thank you. It is sometimes hard to explain that "abundance" does not mean "affordability" - indeed, one of the reasons a product may seem abundant is that it is still sitting on the shelves because there are not enough people who can actually pay for it! It is quite different from a rationing system where everyone receives a share of everything, even though it doesn't result in the queues so frequently mentioned by propagandists.
Marx was early to suggest that capitalism would degenerate into a system where there would be vast production of items that many could not afford. On this he was quite right. Maybe he missed the potential for extending absurd amounts of credit, but that's just given us an extra problem to prolong the pain.
Re:Unlikely as it seems (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't believe that most people still believe this.
Imperialist interference in Middle East -- oil crisis -- inflation -- increase income to management but refuse to pay more to workers -- strikes -- hardship -- blame response to injustice rather than cause.
The '70s, dominated at the start and at the end by a Tory government, was the start of the tedious neocon war on labour which ended up with Britain becoming the laughable shell of a nation that it is today.
You're right about one thing, though: the complete failure of Tory policy was somewhat mitigated by the fortuitous appearance of Scottish gas. That and accounting for public asset sell-offs in order to appear as though the budget had been balanced. Thatcher was an interesting prime minister in only one sense: she had a peculiar ability to seduce pathetic, authoritarian, second-rate males into following her silly policies and turning Britain into a nation of corporate welfare queens.