Putin's coloring lesson for Bush (the two are meeting soon)

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EI26Ag01.html


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These days, Russians tell an anecdote about a request from Coca-Cola to President Vladimir Putin to change the flag back to red. "We aren't opposed to the idea that Russia will have the red flag again," Coke's chief executive officer telephones Putin from Atlanta to say, "but can you write 'Coca-Cola' on it?" "Wait a minute," Putin says, and puts the American on hold. On another telephone, the Russian president then calls his prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov. "What is the termination date of our contract with Aquafresh?" he asks.

If the Russian revolution that has been simmering since 1991 is about to start redistributing power and wealth once more, then watch the colors on the flags. The slow transformation, which began under the red during Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, was halted by Yeltsin. He introduced two forces unconnected at the time to the Russian people - a foreign power determined to destroy the Soviet military-industrial complex; and a group of concessionaires, whom Yeltsin licensed to rob the country blind on two conditions - that they should pay him a modest commission, and that they should not turn against his foreign protector. Like the insignia on the front of every Russian officer's hat, Yeltsin tried placing one state symbol on top of another.

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That the US oil companies to whom Khodorkovsky has applied cannot contemplate paying the Yukos price without the protection of both Putin and US President George W Bush is already obvious. That Khodorkovsky claimed to have Putin's permission earlier in the year is something Khodorkovsky told his associates on the board of Yukos. That he no longer has Putin's permission was clear when Putin briefed US media correspondents at the Kremlin, ahead of his trip to the United States this week.

And so, when Bush asks Putin what he thinks of cooperation in the Russian oil sector, Putin should pull out his coloring book, and hand Bush a crayon - a blue one - and show him where the map has already been colored red. And if Bush isn't to confuse white, the color of virginity and cleanliness, for a blank waiting for Bush to color in with his pencil, Putin can remind him gently that not everything in Russia is open to US takeover.
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take that, you lousy bloody hands bushgang