Not only do we get to see Vladimir Putin’s nice chest — come on, this guy reportedly works out three hours per day —
but now we learn that ten people have just been arrested for the murder last October of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who has been previously mentioned in this blog for her extraordinary writing. Those just arrested reportedly include a Chechen (of course!) crime boss accused of organizing the slaying.The Associated Press is reporting today that Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said the 10 will soon be charged with the Oct. 7 killing of Politkovskaya … and he suggested her murder was plotted outside Russia to discredit its leadership … He said that people involved in Politkovskaya’s killing may have also been involved in the 2004 shooting death of Paul Klebnikov, an American who was editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition. ‘As for the motives for the killing, the results of the investigation lead us to the conclusion that only individuals located outside the territory of the Russian Federation could have had an interest in getting rid of Politkovskaya’, Chaika told a news conference Monday ‘It is in the interest first of all of those people and structures that aim to destabilize the situation in the country, change the constitutional order (and) create a crisis in Russia’, he said, adding that such forces want to ‘discredit the leadership’ and provoke foreign pressure on the Kremlin. They seek ‘a return to the former system of rule, under which money and oligarchs decided everything’, he said. Chaika mentioned no names, but he appeared to be pointing the finger at least in part at Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics and lives in Britain, where he has refugee status. His assertion was likely to be met with disbelief by Kremlin critics, who say Putin and his government are too quick to blame foreign countries and foes abroad — often Berezovsky — for the nation’s problems.”
Independent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya is seen in Moscow in this 2001 photo.
The caption for the photo below reads: Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika , left, speaks to President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s Kremlin Monday, Aug. 27, 2007
As to Putin’s nice chest — and the publicity it has recently received — the AP wrote this in a story that was published in the Miami Herald: “When he flexes Russia’s diplomatic and military muscle, Vladimir Putin always makes headlines. But few could have predicted the squall of gossip and speculation that erupted after the president stripped off his shirt for the cameras while vacationing in the Siberian mountains last week. The resulting images, prominently enshrined on the presidential website, inspired admiration, criticism and some racing pulses among his admirers. The Russian media still can’t get enough. The tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Wednesday published a huge color photo of the bare-chested president under the headline: ‘Be Like Putin.’ Its excuse? A guide showing exactly what exercises were required to build up a torso like the Russian leader’s. Kremlin watchers have been trying to guess what kind of political message the pictures send, given that the 54-year-old Putin has insisted he plans to step down at the end of his second term next year, as required by the constitution. One radio talk show host speculated the photos were meant to enhance Putin’s personal appeal to voters — a strong signal that he doesn’t plan to relinquish power. When the commentator, Yevgeniya Albats, went on to suggest the half-naked photo shoot was unbecoming for a Russian leader, female listeners peppered her with e-mails expressing admiration for Putin’s physique. Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that women who visited its website posted comments on Putin’s ‘vigorous torso’ and said they ‘were screaming with delight and showering [him] with compliments’.”
Read the full story, with its interesting twists and turns, here.
