Tough-Talking Putin Crafted Image His Way
by Gregory Feifer - May 03, 2008
...The Kremlin has worked hard to build Putin's public image as Russia's virile "national leader" whose authority extends beyond his presidency...
Few people had heard of Vladimir Putin when Russia's then-President Boris Yeltsin appointed him prime minister in 1999. But the stern-faced former KGB officer triggered a love affair with the Russian population - by starting a popular second war in Chechnya later that year...
"If they're in the airport," Putin said, "we'll kill them there... and excuse me, but if we find them in the toilet, we'll exterminate them in their outhouses."
...Putin has often lost his temper in public. During a 2002 news conference in Brussels, Belgium, the president responded to a question that angered him by inviting a reporter to come to Moscow to be circumcised:
"We have specialists in this question, as well," Putin said. "I'll recommend that he carry out the operation in such a way that nothing will grow back..."
More 'Putinisms' down the page at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90083829
I jumped in and voted for the fourth option, even though you are being fair about it. It is 'an internet poll' after all. Those Putinisms sound like they come from a man with some 'hands on' experience.