Inga Kumskova
Western Media Outlets Feature Their Own Versions of Spicy VIP Conversations
"Saakashvili knew that Putin was out to hang him by his balls," the French press wrote yesterday. The Georgian President confirmed it after he met with Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace. When a local radio journalist read him a dialogue between the Russian and French Presidents, Saakashvili said, with a nervous grin: "I knew it, but with no gory details. That's ridiculous-but no matter." This was not the first leak of this conversation. By the looks of it, Western leaders enjoy circulating unsavoury phrases from their conversations with their Russian counterparts.
The quoted dialogue appeared in Le Nouvel Observateur a few days ago:
Vladimir Putin: I'll hang Saakashvili by his balls!
Nicolas Sarkozy: Will you?
Vladimir Putin: Why not? Haven't Americans hanged Saddam Hussein?
Nicolas Sarkozy: But would you like finishing your career like Bush?
Vladimir Putin: You have a point.
As the journalist alleges, Sarkozy, Putin, and Medvedev had the conversation at the Kremlin on August 12.
The Russian Government press service said the quotations were a pack of lies. Indicatively, the details came not from an anonymous source but from Jean-David Levitt, the Diplomatic Adviser to the President of France. As the magazine alleges, Sarkozy coaxed Putin during that talk into revealing his plans to overthrow the Saakashvili Cabinet.
According to The Times, vulgar talk increases Mr Putin's popularity-but it is baffling to see Western leaders disclosing details of their conversations with foreign colleagues so willingly. British media outlets released a scandalous piece on September 15, alleging that when the UK Foreign Secretary told Sergei Lavrov that Europe intended to revise its relations with Russia after the events in South Ossetia, Russia's Foreign Minister snapped: "Who are you to fucking lecture me?"
Neither ministry later confirmed that such words had been said at all. Shortly before, Condoleezza Rice was caught red-handed disclosing secret information. In an interview immediately after the South Ossetia war started, the Secretary of State alleged that Lavrov had told her in a telephone conversation that it was necessary to change the regime in Georgia.
As several experts on foreign affairs remarked at that time, top leaders' bilateral contacts would be pointless if such leakages occurred.
