Thursday, August 11, 2011

Putin, the Looter?

http://news.yahoo.com/putin-discovers-greek-urns-scuba-dive-154802017.html

I'll leave it to others to complain to the Russian Embassy that Russia's former and likely future President did not excavate the amphora in question scientifically.

Addendum: PM Putin's office put up this interesting transcript about his discovery, where he indicates his excavations were done with the help of archaeologists and that the he hopes the area will be preserved and exploited for touristic purposes. See
http://premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/16173/

Meanwhile, the NY Times suggests that he dive is but one of many events staged to help ensure PM Putin's standing with Russian voters. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/world/europe/17polling.html?hp

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1 comment:

  1. Dorothy KingAugust 11, 2011 at 10:34 AM

    I think he's okay for a few reasons: a) there were probably real archaeologists supervising, so he's done no more wrong that a student working on a dig, b) there is no evidence he smuggled them out of the country, and c) ... ummm, he's Putin so everyone's terrified of him as critics have this tendency to die ...

    ReplyDelete

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