October 12, 2016

"Russia had its own Pussy Riot moment. What do you think of Donald Trump’s pussy riot moment?"

Said CNN's Christiane Amanpour to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Lavrov is sober: "Well, I don't know what this would… English is not my mother tongue, I don't know if I would sound decent. There are so many pussies around the presidential campaign on both sides that I prefer not to comment on this."

Do you have to be careful when speaking a foreign language... or does it work as license to say something that you don't really need to take responsibility for?

Is "pussy" a word we can say? A all-female punk rock group can use it, but that doesn't clean up the word for general usage.

I love the way Lavrov uses self-deprecation to claim greater freedom: English is not my mother tongue. I wouldn't say "tongue" so close to "pussy," but I'm a native English speaker. Lavrov can't be thought to have intended any double meaning there.

And I love how Lavrov totally made a comment and then pretended he didn't by saying he prefers not to comment. The comment was: "There are so many pussies around the presidential campaign."

Christiane Amanpour giggled and claimed not to have expected that.

But what "pussies" did Lavrov mean? Was it a reference to women in general? Was it the women who have been thrust into the spotlight by sexualizing moves by Trump and Bill Clinton? Was it a reference to Hillary Clinton and the many women around her? Is it not the sex meaning at all by the idea of pusillanimousness — the timidity or weakness associated with kittens and women? Why would Lavrov say that?

It's hard to know what he means... other than perhaps: You Americans are so weak compared to us Russians.

ADDED: He says on both sides. That's key. I'm picturing him singing "Both Sides Now." Write your own parody....

87 comments:

rhhardin said...

I'd take it as referring to the interviewer.

MadisonMan said...

Did she really giggle?

How unprofessional.

rhhardin said...

Not saying pussy is a way to say Trump is awful for saying it.

There's a political choice.

David said...

Well, bugger me, it really sucks that we can say pussy in polite company now.

Michael K said...

She is an idiot and has been for some time.

Clayton Hennesey said...

Lavrov grabbed Amanpour's flirtatiously offered pussy rhetorically as he was collecting it together with the others she referred to, and she giggled in appreciation. A mustachioed woman can never be too choosy.

David said...

Pussy can also mean wimp or even coward, at least when applied to males. I expect the ambassador knows that.

Birkel said...

So, Althouse would not use them so close together. She separates them with three words. And quotation marks.

Because Native English speaker.

MisterBuddwing said...


Cue the Ritz Brothers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5nZwyidDxg

buwaya said...

You Americans are weak. Thats his message, and its on CNN which is what everyone abroad considers the official US news media.
This is a calculated insult that works very well on third parties. Consider what China did to humiliate Obama. Thats had repercussions already.

It is used to undermine US guarantees.

Those guys know precisely what they are doing, and their English is better than Amanpours.

Big Mike said...

Do you have to be careful when speaking a foreign language... or does it work as license to say something that you don't really need to take responsibility for?

Both, obviously. Lavrov is a diplomat. A real one. After eight years of Barack Obama's State Department perhaps people have forgotten what that's like.

The Pussy Riot thing was ultimately an embarrassment for the Putin government -- Amanpour is being deliberately or thoughtlessly insulting when she brings it up. Notice how neatly Lavrov sidesteps the insult.

It's hard to know what he means... other than perhaps: You Americans are so weak compared to us Russians.

David (11:09) is correct, of course. I explained why the term "pussy" is a synonym for a weak and feckless man over on one of the other threads. Lavrov is calling out the American political class. He's not just calling Hillary a pussy because she's a woman; he's calling her a pussy because in his opinion she, like Obama, is feckless. I suspect that he regards Trump as a blowhard and a pussy, too. I know that the Russians regard Barack Obama as a pussy because the Putin government wouldn't risk sliding into a second Cold War with a strong American leader.

MayBee said...

You Americans are weak. Thats his message, and its on CNN which is what everyone abroad considers the official US news media.

Yes, that's what he's saying. And it is true. We are weak in the eyes of Russia.

MayBee said...

I can't believe the Democrats are going all in on the Red Baiting this year. Can you imagine how much outrage there would be in another year if one candidate was earnestly accusing the other (let's pretend Democrat) candidate of being in cahoots with Russia?

William said...

Just as a thought experiment, if it could be shown that Bill Clinton had used Jeffrey Dahmer as a fall guy and Clinton himself was the killer, do you think that such news would overshadow Trump's transgressions or, for that matter, be even reported in the news.

damikesc said...

Jesus is Amanpour a fucking idiot.

It is used to undermine US guarantees.

Given our history the last 8 years, I don't see why any country would trust anything the US says about anything.

BarrySanders20 said...

I bet he went back on Russian TV and wailed "Why aren't we 50 points ahead of these people?

Or "I can't believe we're losing to these idiots."

Maybe because our best and smartest foreign policy types would never say things like that.

By the way, I don't think they think we are weak. I think they want us to think they think we are weak.

They may think we are crazy.

Gusty Winds said...

But what "pussies" did Lavrov mean?

He meant the pussies that think pussy is an important issue in this election. The people prone to its distraction. The righteously indignant.

All Democrats, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Feminists, Intellectuals, the Media, Hillary voters, people with PHD's...

We know he ain't talkin' about Trump.

Meanwhile, back in Aleppo...

I've been following this blog since 2011, and this is the first post I say truly misses the mark, and lacks honest self-awareness.

It's not cute what he said. It's ominous.

traditionalguy said...

Hillary was once a Goldwater girl. So she understands the John Birch Society hold over the minds of older Dplorables. So she uses it.

Hating Russia today is exactly the wrong foreign policy move. So it is not a matter of being a pussy. It is pure Hillry's public lies different from her private position on Russia.

Hillry's may have a pussy, but it is her two foot strap on that everyone has to deal with.

Kevin said...

You Americans are so weak compared to us Russians.

Compare and contract Sergey Lavrov to John Kerry.

Who is the serious person?

Who is the buffoon?

n.n said...

He is referring to abortionists, selective exclusionists ("="), war-mongers, class diversitists, poverty pimps, scientific mystics, JournoLists of the Fourth Estate, and others who are arrogant and crude, but appear "soft, warm, and furry", perhaps in a reference to #CecilTheLion or #CecileTheCannibal.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Time for a Most Loved Pussy fight, or riot.

buwaya said...

They aren't, yet, losing to these idiots.
They are playing a very weak hand, which they inherited, with bluffs.
Modern Russia isn't the Soviet Union. It has no religious fifth column in foreign parts. It doesn't have the manpower for real wars, it doesn't have the total control of the population that it can make them suffer the cost of follies, and their non extractive economy is still suffering from the cultural history of communism. Other than amoral power mongers, IT security specialists, petroleum, gas, and whores, it hasn't got much healthy muscle in its economy.

Lyle Smith said...

By pussies he meant the Democrat and Republican establishments.

Kevin said...

And God help us if this is true:

"Russia is ordering all of its officials to fly home any relatives living abroad amid heightened tensions over the prospect of global war, it has been claimed.

Politicians and high-ranking figures are said to have received a warning from president Vladimir Putin to bring their loved-ones home to the 'Motherland', according to local media.

It comes after Putin cancelled a planned visit to France amid a furious row over Moscow's role in the Syrian conflict and just days after it emerged the Kremlin had moved nuclear-capable missiles near to the Polish border."

The Russians had nuclear war drills last week that involved forty million people - a third of the population.

It looks as if Putin is preparing for imminent military conflict with the United States. Hillary proposed a "no-fly" zone over Syria in the debate (which would involve our shooting at Russian aircraft, BTW).

Sounds as if its the Russians who will be announcing the no-fly zone over Syria in the near future.

But let's keep discussing Donald Trump's language, shall we.

buwaya said...

But what Russia and the Putin regime does have it uses.

The US is playing poorly, like it plays everything poorly these days.

Hagar said...

"Pussy" in Lavrov's sense was around long before I ever heard it in reference to the female anatomy.

Hagar said...

Whatever his morals might be, I wish we had an official as competent as Lavrov.

n.n said...

Americans abort over one million of their children annually. It's a progression of pussies, not wombs, not women, that are taxable, serviceable, and exploitable.

He may also be referring to Obama and Clinton's red line in Libya, where they and former Ambassador Stevens were taken to school by illiterate terrorists (following the Libya-ISIS Affair).

Russia is clearly concerned with Obama and Clinton's progressive wars, trials by sodomy and abortion, and general belligerence, but considers the administration's prospects to defeat Americans in order to secure their base of operations.

TreeJoe said...

Amanpour is a disgrace. Pussy Riot was a suppression of free speech and a real, worthwhile outrage - not just poorly chosen words. And then Lavrov just insulted the US political candidates on both sides and she laughs?

Once upon a time, not that long time, a correspondent would have been fired for laughing at a foreign diplomat - representing a country currently being accused of acts of espionage against us - insulting our political candidates.

tim maguire said...

Russia had its own Pussy Riot moment? What scum Amanpour is. Pussy Riot was Russia's Pussy Riot moment!

They are equating Russia jailing a band because the government didn't like their songs with Trump saying something obnoxious? AND making Trump the primary driver of the comparison?!? (Her comparison clearly suggests Pussy Riot is Trump's scandal, not Russia's.)

Next I suppose CNN will compare Trump's hairpiece to Russia assassinating dissidents. Jesus, these people! Just when I'm wavering in voting for Trump, some pro-Hillary dirtbag comes along and reminds me how important it is that she lose.

BlogDog said...

Ammanpour giggles at Russian alpha male, excoriates American alpha male. How revealing of her sympathies.

Etienne said...

I took that to mean, that he thought the two Presidential candidates had nothing but pussies behind them.

He's no Kerry.

Michael K said...

Those guys know precisely what they are doing, and their English is better than Amanpours.

We are playing France in 1940. Is there any testosterone in the Joint Chiefs ? I think Obama pretty much has the military he wants, which is not much.

The next two years will be the most dangerous since 1938.

In 1962, they respected us.

Etienne said...

TreeJoe said...Pussy Riot was a suppression of free speech and a real, worthwhile outrage

Where they screwed-up was doing hate speech in a church.

gerry said...

Modern Russia isn't the Soviet Union. It has no religious fifth column in foreign parts. It doesn't have the manpower for real wars, it doesn't have the total control of the population that it can make them suffer the cost of follies, and their non extractive economy is still suffering from the cultural history of communism.

I agree, and I have a question: Is this a tactic of a country preparing for war?

MayBee said...

Rahm Emmanuel was in both the Clinton Whitehouse and the Obama Whitehouse. Do we really think either Clinton or Obama are just outraged by this kind of talk?

Etienne said...

MadisonMan said...Did she really giggle?

No.

It was more like a belly laugh. She looked to the producer to signal she wanted an edit at this point.

Looks like the producer couldn't let it pass.

Gusty Winds said...

Christiane Amanpour.

The modern embodiment of the Media Elite Global Feminist. Pro-EU. Anti-Russia, Anti-US, Anti-Brexit, Let-Them-Eat-Cake elitist.

And she giggled at the locker room talk everyone is pretending offends them.

It's all pretend.

I can't wait to vote for Donald Trump.

Thorby said...

The James Bond girl in Goldfinger was named Pussy Galore. I'm sure you can find the movie, which came out in the early 1960's, on Netflix and often seen by the family. Isn't it common parlance when one is in control to say you have them by the balls? Echoing what I have heard in other venues, it is clear that Democrats have arrogated to themselves the privilege of making the rules on the fly, and Republicans are the fools that always seek to follow the rules no matter who makes them. It truly does make the Republicans the 'stupid' party.

SukieTawdry said...

Maybe he meant it in the pussy-wussy sense. Clinton, at least, does tend to surround herself with wimpy, wussy men. Even her pit bulls, like Podesta, come off as wussy. I don't know what the men are like over in the Trump camp.

Thorby said...

Trump is a sexist, but so are Bill and Hillary. In Bill's case, he was convicted and made to pay restitution by the legal system to one of his many victims. As far as I can see, the sexist issue is at worst a tie. What Wikileaks is giving us is Hillary Clinton's private positions on the issues, which as she noted is sometimes, or maybe often, different from her public positions. As the list of these private positions grow and grow, I must ask how many people want to live the America she dreams of? For example, when I was young I read in my history books that the reason why the middle class in America was relatively well off was because America traditionally had a labor shortage. With our open borders and massive immigration, the middle class has fallen. This is not a surprise, it is a feature to the ruling class, which Hillary is indebted to. If you want the US to have favellas like Brazil, keep importing people across the border. If you are one of the fortunate few, you too can have maids, gardeners and personal drivers. For the rest of the middle class, tough luck. Be prepared to continue to downsize.

Gusty Winds said...

gerry said...

Is this a tactic of a country preparing for war?

Does anybody in the comments think Putin takes Obama or Hillary seriously?

If I were him I'd look back on the unenforced Syrian red line and think, 'they're pussies'. They're not going to do shit to me in Syria. NATO is not going to help the US. I'm knocking on their door too.

Putin may not be afraid of Trump. But what Trump said in the second debate was smart. Concentrate on ISIS. Defeat ISIS with Russia. And don't get in a military conflict with Russia. The US doesn't have the money, the resources, or the committed allies.

Who can't see that? Anybody that thinks this election should be about Trump's pussy prowess is an idiot; including the GOP's Paul Ryan. Hillary is going to get us into some serious trouble again.

mccullough said...

Politics is downstream from culture. Trump has accelerated the vulgarity and boorishness of politics permeated by the vulgarity and boorishness of the popular culture that he also helped coarsen over his 30-years as a celebrity.

320Busdriver said...

Its apparent that Donald, prior to visiting with Billybush in LA, attended Frank TJ Mackeys Seduce and Destroy seminar

No Pussy Has Nine Lives

Michael K said...

Hillary is going to get us into some serious trouble again.

Iran and China are more trouble.

I don't think China wants a war but weakness is such an invitation to miscalculation. See 1914 for examples.

Iran is a bigger risk. A German Jew who survived the Holocaust said, "When someone says he wants to kill you, believe him."

Iran says that every day.

Hagar said...

538 has some interesting electoral maps up showing - according to them - that if only men could vote, Trump would win the electoral vote 350 to 80, and if only women could vote, he would lose 80 to 458.
I think that if Hillary was a man, the difference between the two maps would perhaps be less stark, but not that much different.
Can AA explain this as due to anything other than innate differences between the sexes?

The men only map is also interesting in how starkly it demonstrates the difference between the two parties in economic terms. Except for the anomalies of Illinois (Chicago and "Little Egypt") and New Mexico (DoD installations, rural poverty, and Indian reservations), the Democrat states are entirely in the upper NE of the East Coast and the entire West Coast.
I read an article that pointed out that these are the areas where the dot-com wunderkinder and our major financial institutions are located, and the red areas between is where crops are grown and things are made.
So what happens when the Fed finally runs out of string and the next crash comes, as it must eventually do?

rhhardin said...

All these awful terms should be welcomed into public discourse. First of all they're very entertaining in their performances as context picks out this or that meaning over the others, resulting in the expression of hidden doctrines that surprise everybody.

Second of all because it actually liberates women from the chains of modesty to get to what actually matters in sexual difference.

rhhardin said...

Is Megyn Kelly having her period yet? That's the imagined and attributed outrage that started off the season.

Another order for fainting couches was sent, saying roughly that women, you have to faint now. You're not serious enough to participate in life.

rhhardin said...

I didn't understand knocking off Vesper in Casino Royale as a plot point. They spent the next couple of films trying to explain it, and it still didn't make sense. Bond could have knocked off those bad guys just like all the others.

Anyway being a Bond girl doesn't lead to a long life, owing to the necessity to seduce a new girl in the next film. But that's a meta-plot point.

rhhardin said...

Women are so easy to play, vote-wise. It's really awful.

rhhardin said...

Espionage isn't a big moral problem unless it's against one's own country, in which case it's treason.

There's a claim it's a stabilizing influence, increasing information.

mockturtle said...

I love the way Lavrov uses self-deprecation to claim greater freedom: English is not my mother tongue. I wouldn't say "tongue" so close to "pussy," but I'm a native English speaker. Lavrov can't be thought to have intended any double meaning there.

No such thing as an innocent remark around you, is there Ann?

hombre said...

Russia 100, Clinton News Network mediaswine 0.

Obviously, the Russians think we are pussies. Why wouldn't they?

There is the Pussy-in-Chief and his "red line." Our campuses are infested with pussies. Obama, Hillary and the BLM are trying to turn our cops into pussies. Our Presidential election is obsessed with whether pussies are offended by a ten year old reference to "grabbing pussies." We are protesting and boycotting to open womens' dressing and restrooms and girls locker rooms to pussies. Our military is being taken over by pussies. Our election will be decided by pussies. Etc.

Pussies rule! We are the Pussy Nation! And it's about to get worse.

Hagar said...

The Soviet Union survived for 70 years on bluff, so this is not a new thing with the Russians, but Stalin did not have satelites with huge cameras overhead all the time. It was easier for him to make scary shadows on the backside of the Iron Curtain.
On the other hand, Putin is a gambler, and, like Obama, he thinks he is the smartest guy in the room. Putin really may be, but, like in the movies, what usually brings the "smart guy" down is a really dumb move by somebody else. And there is no shortage of either just dumb guys or guys blinded by their ideologies to make dumb moves.

Yancey Ward said...

Lavrov was insulting the American government by calling them pussies. He most definitely knew exactly what he was saying, but here is the thing- the audience wasn't Americans- he was addressing the rest of the world.

Yancey Ward said...

buwaya puti wrote:

"You Americans are weak. Thats his message, and its on CNN which is what everyone abroad considers the official US news media.
This is a calculated insult that works very well on third parties. Consider what China did to humiliate Obama. Thats had repercussions already.

It is used to undermine US guarantees.

Those guys know precisely what they are doing, and their English is better than Amanpours.
"

Exactly!

Gusty Winds said...

Michael K said...

Iran and China are more trouble.

I expect Hillary to get us in trouble right out of the gate; 2017.

You may be right. Although I enjoyed watching Trump finally shove a pie in the Clintons' face, the Syrian/Russia/ISIS exchange at the 2nd debate was the most important.

Clinton and Pence are both aligned in the US obligation to enforce a no fly zone. So are the rest of our federal ding dongs.

Trump had the guts to disagree with his VP pick. His answer was sane, realistic, focused, and pragmatic. When the moderator wanted a soft humanitarian response about "what will you do for the children of Aleppo if it falls", he stated the reality. It's already fallen.

And Trumps accusation that Hillary "doesn't even know who the rebels are" means he has no plans to arm them further and does not believe they are key to defeating ISIS. Seems he clearly thinks a US-Russian alliance is the only way to defeat it. "You have to take out ISIS", he said. And he didn't go on to say..."and then we can take out Assad".

Get ISIS out and see what happens. They are the force of instability. A force of instability the United States helped create.

Trump is willing to make a deal with Putin. Take out ISIS together. The US has no interest or gain in the Assad regime falling. It's really no more than, "who give a shit" anymore.

And Trump is telling NATO (today's most staunch Globalists) that he's not willing to go to war to protect them, especially from Putin. Protect yourselves; pussies.

Are we really supposed to believe Brussels is morally superior to Russia? They've proven to be dumb asses.

Remember. The first President elected with the suffrage vote was Warren G. Harding. A good looking, pussy banging, corrupt politician. They are about to elect a the first woman President that is going to take us into further stupid conflicts and more war.

And if she dies in office Tim Kaine the beta male will be in charge.

I think Bernie voters are really afraid of further wars. Looks like a total gender election, and it may be up to the Bernie Bros to save the country from disaster.

A conflict with Russia over Assad will weaken the US, making us more vulnerable to Iran and China.

mockturtle said...

Gusty Winds correctly states: Trump had the guts to disagree with his VP pick. His answer was sane, realistic, focused, and pragmatic. When the moderator wanted a soft humanitarian response about "what will you do for the children of Aleppo if it falls", he stated the reality. It's already fallen.

My favorite part of the debate. There was no equivocation in his answer, though it was in opposition to his running mate. Face it: There is no discernible foreign policy difference between the Dem-e and the GOPe. None. There is vested interest on both sides to continue these idiotic operations.

hombre said...

It must be time for Obama to press Hillary's RESET button.

Trump ain't much, but it is possible to visualize him ignoring partisan politics when American lives are at stake. Democrats never ignore partisan politics.

Thorby said...

To the complaint that vulgarity in American life is Trump's issue, please direct that to all the parents who had to explain oral sex to their children during the 1990's, and to the President making the case to the population, including teenage girls and boys, that oral sex is not sex. Herpes here we come.

Michael K said...

"A conflict with Russia over Assad will weaken the US, making us more vulnerable to Iran and China. "

Yes, we have almost no real dispute with Russia. Ukraine is about it unless Putin gets tempted into the Baltics. Any sign of strength will probably defer that,

Iran is unalterably hostile and radical enough to go to war for religion.

If they go after Israel, it will be nuclear holocaust in the middle east. Europe and China need middle eastern oil. We don't although the lefties and their global warming hobby horse could lead to catastrophic miscalculation, such as shutting down fracking.

China is more practical but they are having economic troubles that could lead to foreign adventures.

We cannot afford to be the world policeman.

And social work as foreign policy doesn't work as the previous Clinton found out the hard way,

Etienne said...

Bottom line, America isn't ready for a female President.

Hagar said...

I am not sure "we need to take out ISIS." In fact, with the current situation created by Obama, if we were able to look past the behavior of the ISIS forces (which I by no means advocate that we do), perhaps ISIS is the party we ought to support.

In any case, I am quite sure we ought not to be fighting in the Middle East as a junior partner of Iran and Russia.

mockturtle said...

Don't forget North Korea, LOL! They would be so disappointed not to be considered a major nuclear threat. They've been trying desperately for years to get us to take them seriously.

hombre said...

coupe said...
"Bottom line, America isn't ready for a female President."

But America, particularly it's pussies, deserve this one.

Hagar said...

Russia as an ally and supporter of both Iran and Turkey does not make much sense either. I think this eventually is going to bite Putin in the ass. These guys are bound to eventually going to war with each other.
Perhaps Putin is looking to let them do that, but he is going to keep Syria, or at least a Kaliningrad type enclave on the Mediterranian.

damikesc said...

We are playing France in 1940. Is there any testosterone in the Joint Chiefs ? I think Obama pretty much has the military he wants, which is not much.

The next two years will be the most dangerous since 1938.

In 1962, they respected us


But...trannies can serve. So we MUST be way the hell more effective having them! And women get lower standards...how can that POSSIBLY harm readiness?

Wince said...

Which is more pleasurable for a woman: using one's tongue to trace the English or Cyrillic alphabet?

buwaya said...

Not likely to be a land war with Russia on any front, so don't worry about Trans anything, or women. I don't see a battle of the Bulge anywhere soon.
Fourth down to worst case scenario is Putin invades the Baltics, which is the most likely thing to involve US ground troops, seeing as there is a US brigade in Poland - or not sure if it's still there.
Anyway, that would be costly for Russia in many ways. I don't think they have the manpower in any sort of army, that they would be willing to go to the trouble mobilize, to fight off even the angry Poles.
Of course, there are events. So who knows.

buwaya said...

The Russian foreign policy/war aims, BTW, as they stated in their list of points, is mainly to get sanctions dropped.

Hagar said...

Putin invades the Baltics, the Caucasus and the 'Stans will explode, and his adventures in the Middle East wil go to hell. Perhaps China will use the opportunity to take back what the last tsar stole and what Stalin bought.
Mix and match any scenario.

n.n said...

Russia is the focus, but it is the Obama administration that abandoned Iraq, engaged in progressive wars, armed the terrorists, immigration reform, anti-native policies, trial by sodomy and abortion, devalued capital and labor, debased human life, backed violent regime changes in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, etc., and is belligerent in foreign and domestic affairs.

Roughcoat said...


"The essential clue to Russian literature, as indeed to the mysterious Russian character, is that all Russians are shits. They know they are shits, that their whole repulsive society is based on a succession of lies which nobody really believes. The only proof that they are not, as Hitler believed, morally sub-human, is to be found in their occasional propensity to despair and suicide."

-- Auberon Waugh


"Russia is never as strong as she looks; Russia is never as weak as she looks."

-- Attributed, variously, to Talleyrand, Metternich, and Churchill

Hagar said...

Money is funny stuff; it is only worth what people think it is worth at any one time.

buwaya said...

"Putin invades the Baltics, the Caucasus and the 'Stans will explode, and his adventures in the Middle East will go to hell."

Doubt that about the Caucasus and etc. unless the Russians are truly humiliatingly beaten, so it seems unlikely they could come back for revenge anytime soon. They did after all very bloodily crush the place after Putin came in, when Russia was much worse off. He made his bones on that. Even a Putin II wont miss the prompt.

The adventure in the ME, maybe. Reality is that Turkey could squash that adventure in a week, if they were disposed to make the effort. Turkey has a very large, well equipped army, and they are right there.

Hagar said...

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Ukraine - and possibly Belarus?

buwaya said...

Also, tbd about Russian strength.

They have dilly-dallied with the Ukrainians for two years, grabbing a bunch of rotted industrial towns that were of no value to either, and have not yet made the Ukrainians cry uncle and acquiesce to giving up the Crimea. And the Ukraine is genuinely economically deplorable, fighting that war on a shoestring, with militias.

The Russians should have smashed through from Mariupol to Perekop to open a land bridge to the Crimea, and offered terms. Could have been done in a week or two, in the old days, or if the Russians actually did have the old-style wherewithal for such things.

Of course, its not clear what it is that Putin actually wants out of all this Ukraine business.

Bad Lieutenant said...

mockturtle said...
I love the way Lavrov uses self-deprecation to claim greater freedom: English is not my mother tongue. I wouldn't say "tongue" so close to "pussy," but I'm a native English speaker. Lavrov can't be thought to have intended any double meaning there.

No such thing as an innocent remark around you, is there Ann?

10/12/16, 1:09 PM

I believe Ann has what used to be known as a dirty mind.

Known Unknown said...

Journalism is so super-serious and awesome, guys.

Known Unknown said...

We are playing France in 1940. Is there any testosterone in the Joint Chiefs ? I think Obama pretty much has the military he wants, which is not much.

Don't worry, Ghadaffi-killer Hillary will get you into a nice new war in no time.

FullMoon said...

"I've learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side"

tim in vermont said...

The equivalent to "Pussy Riot" in the US is Citizens United, but whatever.

Michael K said...

"Don't worry, Ghadaffi-killer Hillary will get you into a nice new war in no time."

Yes, Hillary will play the role of Kim Kardashian wearing her $4 million in jewels and walking through a bad neighborhood.

We will be mugged.

Sebastian said...

Just piling on late, with bp and Big Mike: "Lavrov is calling out the American political class" Yes. Pussies all. Lavrov and his gang are jackals. But they are not pussies and they do not obfuscate.

F said...

Lavrov is a very polished foreign minister who routinely made a fool of Hillary when she was Secretary of State, and of John Kerry now. He knows exactly what he is doing when he makes a fool of them -- showing them up for the incompetents they are. And his English is very good, so he knows exactly what he is saying and meaning. The Russians are preparing for war while the American press focuses all its effort on destroying the Republican candidate and the GOP. Neither Obama nor Clinton is prepared for war, and

John Becker said...

AceShowBiz shares latest news updates, Pictures and Photos for Donald Trump

Ndi Bhule said...

I believe the foreign minister never understood the question or had an slightest idea who the Pussy Riot are OMG lol.