Among other great qualities, Putin is also good at parody and ironies! The singing “the Motherland” song is brilliant and tune from a KGB film are stroke of genius! The media looks foolish for asking him meaningless questions.

Prime Minister Putin has style and a sense of humour. That's why I consider him one of my favourite world and government leaders, along with President Medvedev, Prime Minister Berlusconi and President Sarkozy. Again, those 10 sleeper agents were just victims of international politics. It shows human lives mean so little in this world. Oh, Russia's so-called Numbers and military stations make for great radio listening.

July 25, 2010, 17:44, PR101 wrote > Among other great qualities, Putin is also good at parody and ironies! The singing “the Motherland” song is brilliant and tune from a KGB film are stroke of genius! The media looks foolish for asking him meaningless questions. PR101, I thought your "boy" Putin told Bill Clinton on the day the "spies" were arrested that "OUR"(American Police were running out of control)...Do YOU remember this? Now are you saying that these people were "SPIES"? I do NOT believe it! You(Putin) is admitting that these people were SPIES? America is fullish for allowing these "spies" back into America becuase their children are American! I say, if they do come back, I hope I know where they live! Your "boy" Putin is a Genius? WOW! Where did you buy your glasses?

Interesting how nobody in the American government threw a big welcome home party for the four spies that landed in the US. Nobody here wasted any time with pointless fanfare and show parties. Only a country like Russia would try to destablize the fragile reset by treating these criminals with such an obvious political circus. I'm surprised Russia didn't declare a national holiday and parade those criminals around Red Square.

Dustin, These "sleepers" are not criminals. They committed no espionage, they had access to no classified information. I can't blame the US in deporting them as they are bona fide foreign agents, but lets not make the silly claim that they are criminals.

@dustin ... there is no reset .. never been never will be .. cause your country plus nato .. cannot be trusted :)

July 26, 2010, 04:08, Dustin wrote > Interesting how nobody in the American government threw a big welcome home party for the four spies that landed in the US. Nobody here wasted any time with pointless fanfare and show parties. Only a country like Russia would try to destablize the fragile reset by treating these criminals with such an obvious political circus. I'm surprised Russia didn't declare a national holiday and parade those criminals around Red Square. ===================== @Dustin They are true HEROES cause in my definition they SAVE lives, unlike your heroes who pilot killer drones from A/C rooms in Nevada and kill helpless, unarmed and weaponless people all around the world. Do you understand the difference?

Generations of living under Soviet rule have so distorted Russians’ attitude to the nature of that regime and its deeds that from their President and Prime Minister on down, I think they really have no grasp of how they sometimes come across to the wider world. Putin, the ex-KGB officer, sings patriotic Soviet-era songs with released Russian spies. But how would he feel if the German Chancellor happened to be an ex-Gestapo officer who got together with some released German spies to sing some good, patriotic Nazi-era songs together? He would surely feel outrage and disgust. Which provides a good clue as to the effect which his own musical endeavours have amongst Russia’s neighbours. This kind of comparison never seems to occur to a Russian. It will always, always occur to victims of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism, who find little to choose between the two.

@Marzipanisix USSR FREED Eastern Europe from the Nazis and Gestapo, Baltic republics, Hungary, Romania, Serbia under Qusling Nedic, western Ukrainians on the other hand fought and served the Nazis and murdered countless Russians and other people in the USSR. ------------------------ "According to available details, the 17-acre (6.8 hectare) site of the new American military base is hardly 35 kilometers from the border of Uzbekistan and it seems set to become the pendant of a "string of pearls" that the US is kneading through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan along the "soft underbelly" of Russia and China's Xinjiang." ------------------------ This is what Fourth Reich is working right now in the name of "friendship", "co-operation" and of-course in the name of "partnership". God Bless Mr.Putin and the brave Patriots! I understand the position of the enemies of Russian Federation and Russian people.

Sierra Nevada Putin knows what he was doing when made those comments to Sleek William Clinton- the grand lobbyist for some of the most corrupted dictators and corporate thieves. Putin is too patriotic to do what Clinton does for a living after the end of his term in White House as the President of the United States. If you read between the lines, you might be able to see that Putin does not believe these people were ‘competent’ spies[i.e. his light hearted reference to singing with the deported spies over an old KGB tune].But of course, the British and the U.S media outlets-online, TV and the print- are eating up Putin’s comment on these spies without a hint of irony. Putin knows how to get under their skin.Finally, Putin’s brash appearance at the bikers’ conference is refreshing after weeks of watching images of the meek looking Medvedev eating greasy hamburger with Obama. Some in the western media claimed this was a publicity stunt by Putin to boost his approval rating. I do not see any problem if this is what Putin was trying to do. Obama was boosting his rating when he showed the U.S public he can make the leader of the Great Russia eat greasy hamburger at cramped U.S burger joint. I do admire Putin because he brings up the spirit and the pride of the Russian people.

@marzipan .. you're too shortminded to get the Putin's joke ..lol ... and please stop pointing your finger at Russia... you hypocrite ... i'm sure that many more countries right now are thinking the same about Natoizm .... btw communism was a flower ..compared to Natoizm . and fascism...you´re pretty much distorted yourself

Alex, Soviet Communism is no more appropriate a subject for joke than is Nazism. Both were brutal, murderous, anti-human and obscene monstrosities.If Putin was joking, he certainly wouldn't joke in his response to a German Chancellor joking about Nazism. Neither Communism nor Nazis were any kind of flower, Alex. Both were poionous, ugly, deadly weeds that ruined the lives of millions of people and of dozens of nations, and whose record will stain the pages of history for as long as lasts.

As if Putin would tell a journalist what he really thinks of those agents, or what he did when he was alone with them. How funny...

I hate politicians.... but Mr. Putin is not one, I think he really is a great leader and patriotic with some passion alongside. Hold on Mr. Putin for time to come as Novaya Russia is going to need you alot. Medvedev on the other hand smells like politician.

Putin has a fine sense of irony.....and understands the absurdity of the whole situation. After all, the US media had a field day mocking these so-called spies who were essentially arrested for not registering the proper paper work to be 'spies'.... which these days we call 'lobbyists'.... Maybe after getting a pilot snatched by the DEA & getting these so-called 'spies/lobbyists' arrested, the Russians might realize there is no such thing as 'reset'......Everybody knows NATO is an expensive outfit to run and they have to stay in business somehow....If NATO disappears who's going to support Estonia?

Larry makes an excellent point. If NATO disappears, Russia's small neighbours (and not just Estonia) will be at the mercy of Moscow's unreconstructed predatory instincts - witness, for example, what Russia did to non-NATO member Georgia.It is precisely because of such troglodyte proclivities that Russia has the reputation that it does amongst its neighbourhood and in the wider world, and why its one-time captives all strove so hard to find safety within NATO's collective security shield. Older NATO members don't have too many misapprehensions about the nature of Russia, either, which ensures that all feel it is very much in their interest to ensure that their alliance continues.

Marzipan6 what do you means by Moscow's "unreconstructed predatory instincts"? Do you means "unconstrained" instincts? And what about NATO's "unconstrained" predatory instincts that are wrecking death and destruction in Afghanistan? “It is precisely because of such troglodyte proclivities that Russia has the reputation that it does amongst its neighbourhood and in the wider world, and why its one-time captives all strove so hard to find safety within NATO's collective security shield.” Contrary to your assertion, Russia commands great respect in the ME, in the entire Muslim world, in Latin America and Asia. NATO and Europe are hostages to the U.S geopolitics but apparently the old Europe is wise enough to do business with Russia.

Marzipan6: "what Russia did to non-NATO member Georgia." What Russia did to Georgia in 2008 was a mistake. Russia should have: Captured Tbilisi; hung that lunatic Saakashvili by his nuts; invited the UN to come in to oversee fair elections; turn all of Georgia's military equipment to scrap metal to be sold to Japan; give freedom and liberty to Abkhazia and S. Ossetia; and then pull out. The Georgian people would then have gotten a better deal from Russia than the Afghan and Iraqi people have gotten from America.

PR asks what I mean by “Moscow’s unreconstructed predatory instincts.” I mean what the words mean. According to the Oxford Dictionary, “unreconstructed” means “not reconciled or converted to the current political theory or movement.” The supposed current political theory in Russia is democracy, and Russia is supposedly reconciled to the independence and sovereignty of its one-time Soviet captives. But in reality, it is not reconciled to this at all. Russia ominously calls nations which were its Soviet-era captives, the “near abroad”, whereas other nations like Finland or China, with which it also shares common borders but which were not its Soviet-era vassals, are simply “abroad.” Russia’s “near abroad” constantly experience Moscow interfering in their internal affairs, dictating how they should run their affairs, stipulating who their allies should or should not be, imposing trade sanctions against them, violating their sea- and air space when they were not NATO members, and militarily invading some that still aren’t. And, for pity’s sake, even demanding what statues they should have where in their capital cities! Russia appears not to be reconciled to their sovereignty at all, and still wants to play the master. Kihnu, your analysis of Saakashvili is not far off the mark, although you neglected to mention that Russia’s long-standing provocations prior to Saakashvili finally snapping and giving it the pretext to intervene militarily seem to have been designed to achieve exactly that end. I agree, though, that Russia’s actions were a mistake. It gained only two small slivers of vassal territory, but at the cost of laying bare its unreconstructed predatory instincts for all the world to see. And of suffering the humiliation of having almost no one else in the world going along with its game and recognising the severed bits of Georgia as new nations.