If you haven't had your laugh yet today, here's one: Russian ruler Vladimir Putin told Bloomberg News that "his biggest fault is that he is too trusting." Both funny and a little ominous.
A former KGB man like Putin saying he's too trusting is kind of like an ogre waking up and saying, "I just realized that I've been too nice to people." Look out.
The "I'm too trusting" line was THE headline in the re-write of the Bloomberg interview for Russian readers by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. Bloomberg News asked Putin some tough questions, none of which made it into the RIA Novosti story.
The RIA Novosti piece is a primer on the media control that now grips Russia as it slides closer toward dictatorship. Here's is a complete list of the less than hard hitting excerpts from the interview, prepared for Russian readers in the RIA Novosti piece (and keep in mind that this is an interview with the prime minister of a nation facing economic extremis and possible social unrest):
-he loves ice cream
-advice he received from his mother
-he sometimes has difficulty sleeping
-his personal slogan "Forward!"
-the best day he's ever had was…
-which past Russian leaders he admires
-how history will remember him
-what he'll do when he retires.
Retires?