"Someone like Putin..."

I am belatedly reading Andrew Jack’s Inside Putin’s Russia, which is quite good so far. Inevitably, as with all Putin-related reading, the ridiculously sycophantic yet catchy tune “Someone Like Putin” enters my head at most inappropriate moments. I find myself humming “someone like Putin, full of strength, someone like Putin, who doesn’t drink” while reading about his non-adventures as a KGB officer in East Germany. You too can have the song not get out of your head! Here are the Russian and English music videos as well as the lyrics for the really hardcore fans.

The Taj Mahal

"It was the Ivory Gate through which all good dreams come; it was the realization of the gleaming halls of dawn that Tennyson sighs of; it was veritably the 'aspiration fixed,' the 'sigh made stone' of a lesser poet; and over and above concrete comparisons, it seemed the embodiment of all things pure, all things holy, and all things unhappy.'' -- Rudyard Kipling