UnNews:Wikileaks row: Putin rejects 'Batman and Robin' comparison

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1 December 2010

Vladimir Putin attended the interview dressed as his favourite caped crusader from Gotham City.

MOSCOW, Russia -- The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has condemned as "slanderous" a US cable describing him as "Robin to President Dmitry Medvedev's Batman."

"This is not fair" he said in a candid but frosty interview with talk show host Larry King, "I wanted to be Batman."

Putin is understood to be a large fan of the caped crimefighter, keeping in his possession a large collection of Batman comics, Batman film memorabilia, Batman costumes, Batman stationary, Batman lunchbox, Batman novels, Batman dinner plates, Batman hunting rifles, Batman spider web, Batman pajamas and a bedroom heavily decorated to look like the Batcave. Being relegated to the role of Robin in US descriptions of him and the Russian president, Medvedev, has caused Putin some considerable duress.

"First I am labeled the Bond villain instead of the cool ex-KGB agent" continued Putin, "and now I am shunned from the role of Batman." The prime minister took off his Batman mask as a sign of rejection, "it is the saddest of days." The leak comes days after Putin fired all of his catering staff and replaced them with an English butler named Alfred. Putin also sent a firing squad to the home of his parents.

The prime minster admires his new floor, in 2007

Caricatures from the morning Russian broadsheets included a satirical drawing of Medvedev, clad in Batman gear slapping, in a rather risque fashion, the small behind of a little Robin-ised Putin, referring to the power difference between the two as well as the Batman comics from the 1950s that featured occasional bites of oblique sexual commentary.

Following the end the interview, the prime minister was seen crying into his cape as he stepped into his Lada, painted to look like the Batmobile.

Asked for a passing comment, Dmitry Medvedev merely said "I'm the Batman."

Sources

• The Guardian "Russian prime minister condemns US cable describing him and President Dmitry Medvedev as Batman and Robin" 1 12, 2010, 1 12, 2010