Vladimir Putin calls John McCain 'nuts' in outspoken attack
Vladimir Putin has launched an extraordinary attack on US Senator John McCain in which he also implicated Washington in the killing of Libyan dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. Sen. John McCain Photo: Getty Images
The Russian prime minister called the former presidential candidate “nuts” in response to Twitter comment about Russia’s parliamentary elections that drew allegations of fraud and triggered large protests.
Mr McCain’s tweet read: "Dear Vlad, The Arab Spring is coming to a neighbourhood near you."
Mr Putin turned stony faced when asked about the tweet on his annual televised phone-in.
"Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore.
"Mr McCain was captured and they kept him not just in prison, but in a pit for several years," he said. "Anyone [in his place] would go nuts."
Referring to Col Gaddafi’s capture and killing, he said: "Who did this? Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then using the radio - through the special forces, who should not have been there - they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation."
The Pentagon immediately dismissed the charge as "ludicrous".
"The assertion that US special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," spokesman Capt John Kirby told AFP as of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta visited Baghdad to end formally the US military mission.
"We did not have American boots on the ground in the Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and on the seas."
Russia initially allowed Nato’s air campaign in Libya to go ahead by abstaining in a UN Security Council vote. But it then vehemently criticised a campaign that Mr Putin at one stage compared to a Western "crusade".
The former KGB agent is widely expected to return to the presidency after a four-year stint as prime minister despite a recent dip in public approval and the street protests - the first of his rule - over the outcome of this month's legislative elections.
Mr Putin last week blamed Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, of sparking the rallies by questioning the vote's legitimacy.
But his response was even more hostile when asked about Mr McCain's comments.
He continued: "This was not addressed in my direction. This was said about Russia. Some people want to move Russia aside somewhere in a corner, so it does not intervene - so that it does not intervene in the ruling of the world.”
"They still fear our nuclear capabilities," he said in reference to the West.
"That is why we are such an irritant. We have our own opinion and are conducting our own independent foreign policy… And it clearly bothers someone."
His response suggested that his next term in the Kremlin – a victory in March is still regarded as a near-certainty - will see a return to the antagonistic rhetoric that marked his first two.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8958294/Vladimir-Putin-calls-John-McCain-nuts-in-outspoken-attack.html
The Pentagon immediately dismissed the charge as "ludicrous".
"The assertion that US special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," spokesman Capt John Kirby told AFP as of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta visited Baghdad to end formally the US military mission.
"We did not have American boots on the ground in the Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and on the seas."
Russia initially allowed Nato’s air campaign in Libya to go ahead by abstaining in a UN Security Council vote. But it then vehemently criticised a campaign that Mr Putin at one stage compared to a Western "crusade".
The former KGB agent is widely expected to return to the presidency after a four-year stint as prime minister despite a recent dip in public approval and the street protests - the first of his rule - over the outcome of this month's legislative elections.
Mr Putin last week blamed Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, of sparking the rallies by questioning the vote's legitimacy.
But his response was even more hostile when asked about Mr McCain's comments.
He continued: "This was not addressed in my direction. This was said about Russia. Some people want to move Russia aside somewhere in a corner, so it does not intervene - so that it does not intervene in the ruling of the world.”
"They still fear our nuclear capabilities," he said in reference to the West.
"That is why we are such an irritant. We have our own opinion and are conducting our own independent foreign policy… And it clearly bothers someone."
His response suggested that his next term in the Kremlin – a victory in March is still regarded as a near-certainty - will see a return to the antagonistic rhetoric that marked his first two.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8958294/Vladimir-Putin-calls-John-McCain-nuts-in-outspoken-attack.html
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