Tough Talking Putin Lays It On The Line ...

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At the time of typing we've not seen much coverage by America's mainstream media of Russian President Putin's recent personal portrayal of bare knuckle politics.



Examine these examples extracted from the man's marathon 5 hours (plus), performance:

Vladimir Putin's nuclear threat to the West

Vladimir Putin has delivered perhaps his most menacing tirade against the West yet, repeating threats to train nuclear missiles on Europe and warning of unspecified retaliation if Kosovo declared independence.

Addressing his last press conference as Russian president, Mr Putin mounted a defiant display that demonstrated more emphatically than ever the widening gulf between Moscow and its former Cold War rivals.

Vladimir Putin used the language of the Russian street in his tirade
In a vintage performance, the former KGB spy laced almost five hours of invective with crude insults, threats and admonitions often expressed in the argot of the Russian street.

Reserving his greatest ire for the United States, which he accused of harbouring a colonial mentality towards Russia, Mr Putin again said that Europe would pay the consequences for a Washington-backed plan to erect a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"Our generals, our security council, consider these moves a threat to our national security," he said. "We asked our partners to stop but no one listened to us. So if they continue we will have to react appropriately by retargeting our missiles."

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Although he did not elaborate, Mr Putin gave warning of retaliation once Kosovo broke away - a threat likely to chill Western leaders. "We have a ready-made plan and we know what we are going to do," he said.

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Encouraged by enthusiastic applause from his audience, Mr Putin often resorted to crude rhetoric to condemn his critics.

Read the rest of this 'Telegraph' report.

*(Cross posted at Appletree)