Ради этого человека в марте 2002 года вкрутили лампочки в фонари города Байкальска. [For the sake of this person in March 2002 they screwed in light bulbs in the street lights of the city of Baikalsk].

Он же оказался побудительной причиной того, чтобы в Тюмени убирали весь снег. [He too turned out to be the motive so that in Tyumen they cleaned up all the snow].

Где-то срочно красили заборы, где-то пенсионерам устанавливали телефон, а на первом плане всегда оказывался он – Владимир Владимирович Путин. [Somewhere urgently they painted fences, somewhere for pensioners they installed a phone, but in the first aspect was always he – Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin].

Что мы знаем о нём сегодня? [What do we know about him today?]

Да, этот человек управлял огромной страной. [Yes, this person ruled an enormous country].

Он свободно говорит по-немецки и уже объясняется по-английски с мировыми лидерами. [He fluently speaks in German and already makes himself understood in English with world leaders].

Занимается дзюдо, любит плавание и горные лыжи. [He does judo, loves swimming and mountain skiing].

Предпочитает алкоголю зелёный чай. [Prefers green tea to alcohol].

Женат, двое детей. [Married, two kids].

Ещё пять лет назад медики Владимира Владимировича говорили, что президента невозможно заставить выпить элементарную микстуру от кашля – Путин не любит медикаменты. [Already five years ago the physicians of Vladimir Vladimirovich said that it is impossible to make the president drink elemetary cough medicine – Putin doesn’t love medicines].

Зато баня, мёд и массаж приветствуются. [But on the other hand steam baths, honey and massage are welcome].

Lately it’s been a little too much Putin on this blog, as I think few readers have been able to miss. I know that opinions differ when it comes to Vladimir Vladimirovich, and that is one of the reasons why focusing on him never gets boring (or I might just be overstepping my boundaries with such a statement – maybe that’s just what it’s becoming, boring). I suppose I could blame the intensification of Putin presence here on the fact that last week was a very political week in Russia, and that it is a little too easy to fall into a ‘cult of personality’ under such heavy exposure to the two Russian leaders. Actually, a while back one of the readers commented on my post about the rumor that Putin was marrying Alina Kabaeva with posing a question about the difference between being a woman in Russia and in the states. The comment was so interesting that I have not let it go, but for reasons due to lack of time I have not yet been able to write about it, but I plan on doing an entry on this topic soon, especially since I’ve given it a lot of thought and come to unexpected conclusions.