Putin tells reporter to 'get circumcised'
Russia's media expressed has shock over a remark by President Vladimir
Putin at the Russia-EU summit in which he urged a Western reporter asking
about the war in Chechnya to come to Moscow and "get circumcised".
Mr Putin's comments, made at a closing press conference of the Russia-EU
summit in Brussels, were played by TVS television station and republished
by several major Moscow newspapers and Internet sites.
The Kommersant business daily reports Mr Putin was asked a Danish reporter
why Russia was using mine warfare in the separatist North Caucasus republic
and exterminating Chechen civilians.
Reports say Mr Putin became infuriated by the question and launched an
unprecedented defence of the three-year Chechen war that at one stage went
off on a tangent.
"You, if I am not mistaken, represent an ally [of the US war on terror] and
are therefore in danger," Mr Putin told the reporter, according to a
transcript that appeared in the Vremya Novostei daily.
"They [the Chechens] talk about killing non-Muslims and if you are a
Christian, you are in danger. And even if you are an atheist, you are in
danger," Mr Putin is quoting as saying.
"If you decide to become a Muslim - even then you are not safe, because
traditional Islam contradicts the conditions and goals that they [the
Chechens rebels] set.
"But if you are prepared to become the most radical Islamist and prepared
to get circumcised - I invite you to Moscow.
"We have specialists that deal with this problem. I suggest that you do
such an operation that nothing grows out of you again," Mr Putin reportedly
said.
Mr Putin is known for his tough talk that at times becomes interlaced with
slang used by criminals and the military.
He launched the war in the predominantly Muslim Chechen republic in October
1999 by threatening to "waste [the Chechens] while they sit in their
outhouses".
Russian media say a Kremlin aide explained to reporters after the Brussels
press conference that Mr Putin was tired during the summit after a hectic
working schedule.
The wide coverage given to Mr Putin's remarks appears unusual for a Russian
media that has grown to carefully toe the Kremlin line in recent months.
LOCALLY
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arms/drugs pump as it was to a lesser extent during the eighties under
Wolfowitz.At least there's this...
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