Putin: If Berlusconi was gay ‘no one would lay a finger on him’

[Turborama]

Source: Washington Post

By Emily Heil, Published: September 19 at 4:06

Astute cultural commentator/legal analyst/Russian president Vladmir Putin has a theory about how former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi could have avoided those pesky tax fraud charges on which he was convicted last year.

“Berlusconi is being tried for living with women,” he mused during an appearance at the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, according to the Russian news service Interfax. “If he were homosexual, no one would lay a finger on him.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2013/09/19/putin-if-berlusconi-was-gay-no-one-would-lay-a-finger-on-him/

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Berlusconi Features In Putin’s Defense of Antigay Policy

MOSCOW — Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wouldn't be facing underage prostitution charges if he were gay, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in an off-color joke that came after a speech in which he hit out at the West's “excesses of political correctness.”

The comments, which Mr. Putin made Thursday at a conference of international policy experts and journalists in Valdai, Russia, come three months after he signed into law Russia’s so-called “gay propaganda” bill, which prohibits people in the country from equating “non-traditional” sexual relations with heterosexual relationships in front of minors.

The law has provoked an outcry from human-rights groups and governments in Europe and North America. Mr. Putin appeared to respond to that criticism Thursday in his speech, where he argued that Euro-Atlantic countries have strayed from their Christian roots by putting same-sex partnerships “on the same level” as multi-child marriages.

After the speech, in a joint appearance with former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the Russian president made a joke about Mr. Berlusconi, who was sentenced in June to seven years in jail after an Italian court convicted him of paying for sex with an underage woman and later covering it up.

More: http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2013/09/19/berlusconi-features-in-putins-defense-of-antigay-policy/

[area51]

1. WTF? n/t

[delrem]

2. When it comes to social/sexual matters, Putin is vying to be the world's premiere jackass.

[joshcryer]

8. Any matter, really.

Hell, even when he was kicking out oligarchs the dude was raising up new ones (he admitted so himself).

[delrem]

10. No. I don't think your statement contains sense.

Please expand.

[joshcryer]

11. Simple. I don't respect the opinion of bigots.

[delrem]

12. well, aren't you the ornery one! and for why?

I'll just figure it's part of your nature.

[joshcryer]

13. Bigots don't deserve respect?

[joshcryer]

16. I don't understand what you're asking.

What does it hurt to dismiss bigots from the start and give them the least consideration possible?

[delrem]

17. Well, josh, I don't give you any consideration. So there's that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. joshcryer said Putin is a jackass on any subject

And he gave, as an example, Putin willingly allowing new oligarchs to arise in Russia. He then called Putin a bigot. This was quite easy to understand, but, somehow, you didn't, and managed to think something was being said about you. And then you flew off the handle, and have now decided you 'don't give josh any consideration' - if you arrived there because of the way you misunderstood this thread, then perhaps you ought to reread it, and reconsider.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. May be true. I am as gay as they come and I wouldn't lay a finger on Berlusconi.

Who knew Putin was a sage?!

[David__77]

19. That's also how I interpreted it.

I certainly would not lay a finger on him, nor ever think of doing so. But I also thought the implication was insulting to heterosexual women, that they would lol...

[Beacool]

4. And if he hadn't stuffed the ballot boxes, Putin wouldn't be president.

Once KGB, always KGB.

[David__77]

26. Do you think the communist candidate Zyuganov was the rightful winner of the Russian presidency?

...

[Beacool]

28. I don't know, but there were a little of people in Russia who thought that Putin didn't win.

At least not legitimately. Remember when thousands came out to protest and Putin blamed the US and Hillary specifically (which elicited a laugh from her)?

[iamthebandfanman]

5. Fascists gotta stick together. n/t

[Maedhros]

6. The man clearly has issues [n/t]

[joshcryer]

7. Putin is a disgrace.

Amazing anyone would take what he has to say with any measure of consideration.

[azurnoir]

9. well I suppose Putin could be right about that

Berlusconi is rather revolting

[Ash_F]

15. Right wing nutbags gotta stick together. /nt

[jakeXT]

18. Berlusconi had to go to allow the Libya operation "Southern Mistral" to go ahead

Doesn't matter if you find underage girls or boys.

[Turborama]

20. Can you explain what you mean, please?

What's "Southern Mistral" got to do with any of this?

[jakeXT]

21. It certainly made the decision easier for Berlusconi to drop Gaddafi

"We signed the friendship treaty with a state, but when the counterpart no longer exists - in this case the Libyan state - the treaty cannot be applied," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in comments to Sky Italia. "The de facto suspension of this treaty, even without declaring it, is already a reality."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/27/AR2011022701161.html

In 1986 Italy was a problem for NATO

Forewarned by a telephone call, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound moments before the bombs dropped. It was long thought that the call came from Malta's Prime Minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.[15] However, Italian politician Bettino Craxi was the person who actually warned Gaddafi, according to Giulio Andreotti (the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy) and Abdel Rahman Shalgham (Libya's Foreign Minister from 2000 until 2009 who was at this time Libya's ambassador to Italy).[16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_United_States_bombing_of_Libya

Headlines across Italy are now decrying an end to Berlusconi’s and Gadaffi’s bunga bunga, relationship in reference to the wild parties the two shared and their keen interest in younger women. Berlusconi is due to be facing charges for his alleged paying of a 16 year old Moroccan prostitute to attend wild sex parties at one of his Mansions. Berlusconi has voiced dismay over the uncomfortable situation he has been forced into with his friend and colleague stating that "this hits him on a personal level." Gadaffi has said that he is deeply hurt and dismayed by his good friend and partner in crime turning his back on him and that all deals with Italy are off until Berlusconi is gone. Italy’s defense minister and member of the racist Northern League, Ignazio La Russa, announced a little over a week ago that the Italy/Libya friendship deal was off until further notice leaving Italian contractors poised to profit from the deal with some unforeseen economic misfortune.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/25/how-italy-forced-nato-s-hand-on-libya/

Aircraft flying from NATO bases in Sigonella, Sicily, Aviano in northern Italy, and a U.S. carrier in the Mediterranean could enforce the no-fly zone.

[Turborama]

23. Thanks for taking the time to try and explain.

It's common knowledge that Italy has had a long relationship with Libya, dating back to the colonial period a century ago and even further back to the Roman era.

However, if "Berlusconi had to go, to allow the Libya operation "Southern Mistral" to go ahead. Doesn't matter if you find underage girls or boys" means there's some CT that Berlusconi was set up with El Mahroug in 2010 so that NATO could enforce the UN Security Council approved no-fly zone in Libya in 2011 then we're done. Thanks again, though.

[jakeXT]

24. You don't even need to set him up, enough dirt on him.

You just need to know about it.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Anyone who does not call for boycotting this Olympic is a piece of shite

Those who want to attend this crap and wallow in this bigoted culture should be ashamed. Obama needs to stop pushing the Putin Winter Ski Fest as too important to boycott. I understand that Obama and Putin share a religion that holds gay people in contempt, but I am sick of that dogma being pushed at us.

[Rozlee]

27. It's a dogma that's used to justify too many atrocities and that

each side think it's own cause is sacred. We've condoned everything from slavery to hanging women for witchcraft based on it and I'm sick of these biblical literalists shoving it down our throats. But, I think Putin is no more religious than I am. Someone that set the stage for so much wet work in his career is too cold, analytical and calculating to pigeonhole himself into the confines of religion. He once spoke of a cross his mother gave him that he never took off and that protected him. The one time he took it off to relax in a sauna, the sauna caught on fire and he recounted his narrow escape from it (naked, off course). The cross was later found "intact" in the ashes of the ruined building and he's never taken it off since. He speaks of his youth and hiding his Christianity his entire life due to fear of retaliation from Communist oppression. Oh. My. Gawd.

[Arkana]

29. Um, Vlad? If Berlusconi was gay he wouldn't be a philandering prick.

Well, maybe he would, but not with women.

[KamaAina]

30. No, Vlad, he's being tried for living with girls.