Putin, Pomp & Circumcision

We Brits sometimes boast that we're rather good at organising formal state occasions. On this evidence, the Russians don't do a bad job at it either.


I was intrigued to see that this particular clip on YouTube (HERE) cuts just as he gets his speech out of his pocket. 


And was it just a coincidence that the timing of this historic event coincided with the election of a new President of the French Republic? 


I look forward to looking more closely at his speech - but I haven't forgotten (and hope others won't forget) the putrid prose that President Putin has been known to peddle in the past...