| November 11, 4:00 PM
, 2020 | - In China, where officials presented Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin with the Confucius Peace Prize for his “iron hand and toughness” during the Second Chechen War, a nine-seat van packed with 62 kindergartners collided with a truck, killing at least 18 children.
| Source 1:
NY Times
Source 2:
AP via MSNBC
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| December 16, 2011 | - Former French president Jacques Chirac was convicted of corruption for employing nineteen “ghost workers” while he was mayor of Paris, and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin addressed allegations of fraud in his country's parliamentary elections, claiming that antigovernment protesters had been paid to march. “Fine, let them earn a little money,” he said, adding that the white ribbons they wore looked like condoms.
| Source 1:
AP
Source 2:
AFP
Source 3:
The National
Source 4:
Guardian
Source 5:
Foreign Policy
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| December 6, 2011 | -
Russians in nine time zones rallied to demand a revote of their country's December 4 parliamentary elections, in which the ruling United Russia party won a slim majority. Russia’s only independent election-monitoring group logged more than 5,000 fraud allegations, while videos posted to YouTube showed stuffed ballot boxes, voting booths supplied with erasable ink, and buses taking people to vote at multiple locations. “If someone writes the phrase ‘party of swindlers and thieves’ on a blog,” tweeted Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, “he is just a fuckface.” As many as 50,000 people protested in Bolotnaya Square across the Moskva River from the Kremlin, despite the deployment of thousands of troops in Moscow, and in Beijing two Russian foreign-exchange students accepted the Confucius Peace Prize on behalf of Vladimir Putin, who was selected over the Chinese Panchen Lama and the father of hybrid rice. The award citation praised Putin for crushing antigovernment forces in Chechnya, where voter turnout in the parliamentary elections was a reported 99.5 percent, with 99.5 percent in favor of United Russia.
| Source 1:
BBC
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
CNN
Source 4:
BBC
Source 5:
France 24
Source 6:
AFP via Daily Nation
Source 7:
The Guardian
Source 8:
Shanghaiist
Source 9:
Washington Post
Source 10:
Ria Novsti
Source 11:
The Moscow Times
|
| August 12, 2011 | - Former Russian president Vladimir Putin went scuba diving in Phanagoria, site of the “Russian Atlantis.” After finding the remains of two urns at a depth of two meters, he toured a nearby excavation. “Can I take it?” he asked archaeologists upon filching an ancient amphora fragment. “It might be useful in my household.” Critics said the urns had been planted.
| Source 1:
Ria Novosti
Source 2:
Guardian
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| May 31, 2011 | -
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin released a report suggesting that sex-crime charges against former I.M.F. chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn were the result of a CIA conspiracy following Strauss-Kahn's discovery that U.S. gold reserves at Fort Knox were “missing and/or unaccounted” for. “I cannot believe that it looks the way it was initially introduced,” said Putin. "It doesn’t sit right in my head.”
| Source:
EU Times
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| November 30, 2010 | - One of the 250,000 American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks revealed that, after Googling themselves, China’s leaders pressured Google to censor its Internet search results last year. Other cables revealed that U.S. diplomats believe Canadians feel “condemned to always play ‘Robin’ to the U.S. ‘Batman,'“ and refer to Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin as Batman to President Dmitry Medvedev's Robin. It was also disclosed that Putin has a close financial and personal relationship with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a revelation that prompted Berlusconi to fly to the Black Sea to see him. French president Nicolas Sarkozy was described as seeing ”his own rise in the world as reflecting an American-like saga“ but also as needing to channel his “impulsive proposals into constructive directions.”
| Source 1:
NYT
Source 2:
NYT
Source 3:
BBC
Source 4:
Guardian
Source 5:
The Age
Source 6:
NYT
|
| October 8, 2010 | - Washington D.C.'s Department of Motor Vehicles began offering HIV testing, and women at Moscow State University dressed in lingerie and posed for a calendar to celebrate Vladimir Putin's 58th birthday. “You put out forest fires,” read the caption of one photo, “but I'm still burning.”
| Source 1:
CNN
Source 2:
BBC
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| August 26, 2010 | - “Crocodile Dundee” actor Paul Hogan was detained in Australia for failure to pay taxes on $37.6 million of undeclared income, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin shot a whale with a crossbow. “I hit it at the fourth try!” said Putin.
| Source 1:
Yahoo News
Source 2:
Guardian
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| July 26, 2010 | - Following her return to Moscow, Russian spy Anna Chapman and Vladimir Putin sang patriotic songs.
| Source:
Daily Mail
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| May 8, 2009 | - Moscow schoolgirl Katya Kazakova, struck by stage fright, was unable to sing a patriotic song, “The Dug Out,” for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, until Putin joined in. “The fire is pulsing in a cramped stove,” they sang together, Putin's voice soft and melodious. “The resin on the firewood is like a tear.”
| Source:
Breitbart
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| October 17, 2008 | -
Putin's black labrador was given a satellite-monitoring collar. “She looks sad,” said Russian Deputy Minister Sergei Ivanov. “Her free life is over.” “She is wagging her tail,” said Putin. “That means she likes it.”
| Source:
Reuters
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| October 15, 2008 | - Senior officials of Russian energy company Gazprom, including personal associates of Vladimir Putin, met in Anchorage with Alaska's Department of Natural Resources to discuss investing in energy projects in the state. Governor Sarah Palin said that she did not know about the meeting.
| Source 1:
IHT
Source 2:
CNN
Source 3:
NYT
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| September 1, 2008 | -
Putin also announced a ban on poultry imports from 19 U.S. companies, explaining that their chicken failed to meet sanitary standards and that the ban had nothing to do with ongoing political tensions over Georgia.
| Source:
Novosti
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| August 31, 2008 | -
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saved a television crew from attack by shooting an escaped Siberian tiger with a tranquilizer gun.
| Source:
Yahoo
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| April 5, 2008 | -
Russian President Vladimir Putin crashed a gala on the last day of the NATO summit in Bucharest. “Let's be friends, guys,” he said.
| Source:
Washington Post
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| December 12, 2007 | - President Vladimir Putin selected his protege Dmitry Medvedev to be the next president of the Russian Federation. “It's almost a monarchical succession,” said the director of the Moscow-based Center for the Study of Elites, adding that Putin has “nominated his adopted son.” Medvedev, a 42-year-old, 5'4" fan of the band Deep Purple, quickly said that he would make Putin his prime minister.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
New York Times
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| October 18, 2007 | -
Vladimir Putin traveled to Iran and cautioned the United States against a military strike; President Bush responded by saying that democracy might not be in the “Russian DNA” and threatened World War III if Iran acquired nuclear weapons.
| Source 1:
The Guardian
Source 2:
Washington Post
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| October 18, 2007 | -
Vladimir Putin traveled to Iran and cautioned the United States against a military strike; President Bush responded by saying that democracy might not be in the “Russian DNA” and threatened World War III if Iran acquired nuclear weapons.
| Source 1:
The Guardian
Source 2:
Washington Post
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| October 15, 2007 | - A Kremlin spokeswoman said assassins are plotting to kill Vladimir Putin this week during his visit to Tehran.
| Source:
Breitbart
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| September 17, 2007 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin dissolved his government, appointing a little-known technocrat, Viktor Zubkov, as new Prime Minister.
| Source 1:
BBC
Source 2:
CS Monitor
Source 3:
Moscow Times
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| July 26, 2007 | -
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Britain of “colonial thinking” for demanding the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, who is suspected of murdering former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
| Source:
Telegraph
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| July 8, 2007 | - President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin rode Segway scooters together.
| Source:
New York Times
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| June 27, 2007 | - It was reported that orders given by Vice President Dick Cheney in 2001 to reverse the flow of waters in the Pacific Northwest, against rules set by the Endangered Species Act, left 77,000 salmon rotting on the shores of the Klamath River. The ensuing “commercial fishery failure” required $60 million in federal disaster aid to local fishermen. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where President George W. Bush and his father took him fishing. “Fishing,” said former President George H. W. Bush, “is good for the soul.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Washington Post
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| June 4, 2007 | -
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to point his country's missiles at Washington and Europe.
| Source:
Reuters
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| March 5, 2007 | -
Vladimir Putin installed Ramzan Kadyrov, a 30-year-old reputed warlord and torturer, as president of Chechnya.
| Source:
Moscow Times
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| February 11, 2007 | - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dismissed Vladimir Putin's criticisms of U.S. foreign policy as the “blunt speaking” habits of “old spies.”
| Source:
MSNBC
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| January 9, 2007 | -
Vladimir Putin threatened to cut Russia's
oil production.
| Source:
Business Week
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| November 25, 2006 | - In London, Col. Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent, died several weeks after being poisoned with polonium 210, a rare isotope that is used in nuclear bombs and moon buggies. Investigators fear that Litvinenko, who accused Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of ordering his assassination, may have spread radiation to his wife and son as they hugged and kissed him on his deathbed.
| Source 1:
Sky News
Source 2:
Sun (U.K.)
Source 3:
Daily Mail
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| October 25, 2006 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin blamed a failure to adopt a “proper tone” in diplomatic negotiations with North Korea for the current weapons crisis.
| Source:
United Press International
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| September 29, 2006 | - A Russian tabloid praised President Vladimir Putin for sprucing up his wardrobe.
| Source:
Baltimore Sun via Seattle Times
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| July 6, 2006 | - President Vladimir Putin of Russia explained that he had recently kissed a young boy on the stomach because he “wanted to stroke him like a cat.”
| Source:
Agence France-Presse
|
| June 28, 2006 | -
Vladimir Putin kissed a boy on the stomach.
| Source:
Daily News & Analysis
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| June 7, 2006 | - President Vladimir Putin of Russia had lunch with Henry Kissinger, who said afterward that he has confidence in “Russian evolution.” “What if my grandmother had certain sexual attributes?” Putin asked a reporter. “Then she would would be my grandfather.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 30, 2006 | -
Vladimir Putin said that Russia has missiles that zigzag.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| June 30, 2005 | - The owner of the New England Patriots football team took off his 14-karat-gold Super Bowl ring to show it to Vladimir Putin; Putin put the ring in his pocket and kept it.
| Source:
The Miami Herald
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| February 25, 2005 | - At a summit in Bratislava, Vladimir Putin accused George W. Bush of firing Dan Rather.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| January 28, 2005 | -
Vladimir Putin noted that "as there were no good and bad fascists, there cannot be good and bad terrorists. Any double standards here are absolutely unacceptable and deadly dangerous for civilization."
| Source: The Globe and Mail
|
| December 31, 2004 | - President Vladimir Putin made the first ten days of the New Year a national holiday
| Source: New York Times
|
| December 3, 2004 | - At a Moscow airport Vladimir Putin told Ukraine's outgoing president that new run-off elections were unnecessary.
| Source: New York Times
|
| September 19, 2004 | - President Vladimir Putin of Russia responded to the recent terror attacks there by announcing plans for a radical restructuring of the Russian political system that would end the popular election of regional governors and district representatives in parliament.
| Source: Lexington Herald-Leader
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| March 14, 2004 | - President Vladimir Putin of Russia was reelected.
| Source: Associated Press
|
| February 24, 2004 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin fired his prime minister and most of his cabinet.
| Source: CNN
|
| February 9, 2004 | - Ivan Rybkin, a Russian presidential candidate who recently took out a full-page newspaper ad accusing President Vladimir Putin of being "the biggest oligarch in Russia," disappeared; a murder investigation was announced, and then it was cancelled.
| Source: CNN
|
| December 5, 2003 | - A Kremlin official announced that Russia will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol; the next day another official contradicted that pronouncement, which was followed on the third day by a negation of the denial that President Putin had in fact decided against the global-warming treaty.
| Source: New York Times
|
| October 9, 2003 | - President Vladimir Putin rejected any comparisons between his regime and the Soviet Union: "To talk about a return to the Soviet times in connection with [Russian security officials] would be like talking about the times of McCarthy, referring to the ministry of homeland security in the United States."
| Source: New York Times
|
| September 29, 2003 | - Vladimir Putin visited President Bush at Camp David; "Pootie-Poot," as he is known by the president, refused to cancel Russia's $800 million contract to build a commercial nuclear reactor for Iran.
| Source: New York Times
|
| February 4, 2003 | - There were rumors of a lawsuit against Warner Brothers because Dobby the house elf in the latest Harry Potter
movie so closely resembles President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
| |
| November 20, 2001 | - Presidents Bush and Putin had a fine time kidding around down on the ranch in Crawford, Texas, and they agreed to cut American and Russian nuclear arms by two thirds.
| |
| October 23, 2001 | - American officials let it be known that President Bush and President Vladimir Putin had come to an historic understanding that would transform relations between their two countries. “Not only is the Cold War over,” said Secretary of State Colin Powell, “the post-Cold War period is also over.”
| |
| July 31, 2001 | -
President George W. Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to work toward a disarmament framework that would reduce nuclear weapons while allowing the U.S. its missile-defense scheme; a few days before their discussion, Putin remarked that Bush was “a fairly good-hearted person, nice to talk to, I would even say . . . even a little bit sentimental.”
| |
| July 31, 2001 | - Kim Jong Il, North Korea's Dear Leader, while on a train to Moscow to meet with President Putin, promised that his country won't shoot missiles at the United States.
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| July 24, 2001 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that Lenin's body will remain on display in Moscow, despite calls for it to be buried.
“Once I see an overwhelming majority of people wanting to tackle the Lenin question, we will discuss it,” he said. “But today I don't see it and therefore we will not talk about it.”
| |
| May 22, 2001 | - President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President George W. Bush made a date to meet for the first time.
| |
| May 22, 2001 | -
Russia's
parliament voted to give President Putin more power.
| |
| March 27, 2001 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin urged the use of force to prevent the conflict from spreading.
| |
| March 20, 2001 | - President Vladimir Putin was said to be off in Siberia hunting wolves.
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| March 6, 2001 | -
South Korean president Kim Dae Jung pleased Russian president Vladimir Putin by declaring his opposition to the United States' plan to build a national missile defense system that would violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
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| January 9, 2001 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin was in Germany to discuss debt repayment with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; Putin was also seeking German support for a multinational missile defense system as an alternative to the American scheme, which would violate the Treaty on the Limitation of Antiballistic Missile Systems and destabilize the world strategic order.
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| January 9, 2001 | -
United States intelligence officials reported that Russia recently moved nuclear weapons into the Baltic town of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Konigsberg, the home of Immanuel Kant, the author of the Critique of Pure Reason and “Perpetual Peace.” President Vladimir Putin, asked about the reports, responded: “That's rubbish.”
| |
| December 12, 2000 | -
Russia asked Interpol to help catch the runaway Jewish oligarch Vladimir V. Gusinsky, who was charged with fraud after he displeased President Vladimir V. Putin.
| |
| December 12, 2000 | - Edmond Pope, an American businessman, was sentenced, after a Moscow show trial, to twenty years' hard labor for trying to buy nonclassified information about a torpedo; the judge in the case took just two hours to produce a twenty-page decision. President Putin said he would accept the recommendation of the pardon commission to release Pope; the commission's chairman noted that Russians “are a magnanimous people, although legends circulate in the world about our cruelty.”
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| November 21, 2000 | -
Russian oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky gave up and let the Putin government take over his media company, which owns Russia's leading independent TV station, but the deal fell apart; esoteric explanations abounded.
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| November 21, 2000 | -
President Putin called for radically lower numbers of Russian and U.S. nuclear weapons, which was said to be motivated largely by the fact that Russia cannot afford to maintain weapons that are designed never to be used.
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| November 7, 2000 | -
Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to open Soviet archives to researchers for data about the millions murdered by Joseph Stalin.
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| September 12, 2000 | -
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a system of cooperation among nations that use submarines so that endangered crews might be more easily rescued.
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| September 12, 2000 | -
Russia's
defense minister confirmed that President Putin plans to cut the Russian military by a third.
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| September 5, 2000 | -
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing the director of the Bolshoi Theater.
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| August 22, 2000 | - After it became clear that the 118 Russian sailors aboard the sunken Mursk submarine were probably dead, President Vladimir V. Putin ordered his generals to accept offers of help from other countries.
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| August 15, 2000 | - A standoff between workers and government agents continued at one of Russia's premier vodka factories; President Vladimir Putin reportedly has seen the wisdom of state control of the vodka industry.
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| July 25, 2000 | - The Russian
Parliament voted to give President Putin more power.
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