Comment: Putin certainly drives the world crazy. Any innocent gesture is interpreted as if it's of planetary importance. There's a reason Forbes picked him as the most powerful person on the planet...
An apparently innocuous gesture from Vladimir Putin, who put a shawl around the shoulders of China's First Lady Peng Liyuan during a fireworks display, has attracted accusations of being Russia's "Don-Juan-in-Chief" from Western media.
The Russian president followed his country's cold-weather etiquette, when he offered what appeared to be a shawl or blanket to Chinese Premier Xi Jinping's wife during a chilly outdoor fireworks display at the APEC summit in Beijing. The camera caught the former renowned folk singer courteously accepting the offer, before exchanging the shawl for a coat handed to her by an assistant. Meanwhile, Xi sat a few meters away, talking animatedly to Barack Obama.
Monday's momentary humanizing episode might have passed without mention, but the image proved a boon for journalists possibly bored with the intricacies of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
Comment: Even if there will be hard times in Russia economically, the only people that will continue to whine will be the paid "5th column". That's what the West and its psychopaths fail to understand - that the key point of Putin's politics is giving people meaning. That's why he talks about love and makes sure to give an example of thoughtful and appropriate behavior. And that's why he created the new Unity Day holiday.
It's because Russians are at their best during hard times, especially if there is a higher meaning behind them. Just look at WWII. That's why the '90s were so devastating: it was a time of total moral bankruptcy. And that's why despite all the foreign hooplah, Putin is going to succeed, simply because while Europe is promoting nihilism and various filth like giant green butt plugs, and while the U.S. has Miley Cyrus and her pornographic 'musical' performances to offer, Putin talks about mutual respect, friendship and love of motherland. And it doesn't matter if many Russians cannot afford to buy blue cheese, as long as they have something higher to believe in, something sorely lacking in the West.