Be my guest: how quickly a bride forgets the ugly truth about Putin
It’s that’s classic Austrian wedding tradition: a Viennese waltz with the president of Russia. Dear Vlad drank, he danced, he placed his autograph on the wedding car and, at the end of the waltz, in an image that provoked outrage in the papers, he received a fawningly low curtsey from the bride herself.
The trouble, alas, is that the bride happened to be Karin Kneissl, Austria’s foreign minister. She and Mr Putin aren’t known to be particularly close friends, but then, if you are a prominent politician, why not use your status shamelessly to lure celebrity dictators to your intimate family gatherings?
The fact that your guest is responsible for the first use of chemical weapons on European soil since the Second World War is neither here nor there between friends.
At least the papers saw things differently. “A disgrace!” thundered De Standard. “Going down on her knees in front of
Why not use your status to lure celebrity dictators to family gatherings?
Putin,” exclaimed Kleine Zeitung. “An overly deep curtsey,” scoffed Oe24.
It only remains to be seen where in Europe the great Russian entertainer will pop up next. My bet, given Jeremy Corbyn’s fondness for unsavoury company, is the Barnet allotment harvest festival. No doubt he could do a creative rendition of the traditional songs: “We plough the fields and scatter the bombshells on the damned…”
Another option, given Mr Putin’s penchant for bare-chested horseriding, is that he pays a visit to one of Syria’s equestrian venues. Riding is one of the Assad family’s favourite past-times, as illustrated by the recent emergence online of a photo celebrating the winners of a competition held by the Syrian Arab Army. Four women stand smiling side by side in matching white jodhpurs and navy helmets, holding up certificates that each bear a photo of Bashar al-assad in army uniform.
Their identities, according to sharp-eyed Syria experts, are as follows: in first place, one of Assad’s nieces; second place, another of his nieces; third place, his sister-in-law; fourth place, his business partner’s daughter.
Clearly, the other competitors had learnt a salutary lesson from the jailing in the late Nineties of Adnan Qasar, a talented rider who made the mistake of being a better horseman than Bassel al-assad, one of Bashar’s brothers.
This, in a nutshell, is Assad’s Syria.