OUCH! How Long Will You Be Staying With Us, Sir?

by Reg Green

     A scholarly friend who saw in OUCH! that I’ve been reading Philip Short’s biography, Putin, called me this week to add a fascinating detail not reported in even that massive book. You may know of this encounter, though it was new to me, of the Russian leader with a passport control officer at the airport of a neighboring European country. Here it is in its entirety:

Passport control: What is your name?

VP: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

PC: Occupation?

VP: No, just visiting.