Saturday, October 30, 2010

Putin Judos, Medvedev Podcasts - the World Watches

Russian leadership is grabbing global media attention. CNN was full of Russian premier Putin the past two days. On Tuesday, he presented an instructional judo DVD that bears his name and shows him throwing an opponent to the mat.

"Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin" is the product of collaboration between Putin -- a black belt -- and other judo enthusiasts, including former World and Olympic judo champion Yasuhiro Yamashita. It apparently was privately made and intended mainly for Russians studying judo.

Early Tuesday morning, minutes into his 56th birthday, Putin talked about the video at a presentation before journalists and other guests at a state-owned venue. Putin said the video's title was little more than an "advertising trick." Anyone who watches it "will be learning not from your humble servant but from real geniuses" of the martial art, he said.
Embedded video from CNN Video

Today, as if to continue the Russian theme on the international media, Dmitry Medvedev spoke about his upcoming address to the World Policy Conference in Evian in his first video address to the site's visitors. That's the first ever Presidential podcast.

In an interview earlier this year, Medvedev said he typically began every day by turning on his PC. "I look at the sites of our major Russian and foreign media," he told the Financial Times, adding that he browsed sites that were "positive" about the authorities as well as ones in "tough opposition to them".
Today one leading pro-Kremlin analyst described Medvedev's inaugural two-minute video blog as "very good".

"Putin is a post-Soviet leader. Medvedev is a post-post Soviet leader," Sergei Markov, a member of the pro-government United Russia party told the Guardian. "He is very advanced at using hi-tec technologies. Among G8 leaders he is the most advanced."

No comments:

Post a Comment