Politicians the world over love to project the notion that they are just ordinary people doing a difficult job. Recent information from Russia shows that this is a complete sham. "With a collection of watches worth almost £500,000, many would assume they belonged to a Russian oligarch. But Russian president Vladimir Putin has a collection of timepieces worth almost six times his official annual salary of £72,000. One of the watches - made from platinum with a crocodile skin strap - sells for more than £300,000 alone." (Daily Mail, 9 June) Such staggering wealth is beyond the imagination of most members of the Russian working class.. RD
The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
Putin is not the only member of the country's ruling class with a taste for expensive watches:
ReplyDeleteThe Russian Orthodox Church says giving Patriarch Kirill an anti-award for his “miracle-stained arms” following a scandal around his “vanishing” watch was an insult to all believers. In the row-provoking incident, Kirill was seen sporting a luxury timepiece in one photo. Then, sometime later, the watch “miraculously” disappeared from Kirill’s wrist in a subsequent photo on the Patriarchate’s website. Eagle-eyed web surfers noticed that while no watch was visible on Kirill, there was a reflection of it on the shiny polished table at which he was sitting. On Monday evening, the annual Silver Galosh award ceremony for the most questionable achievements in showbiz took place in Moscow. Patriarch Kirill won the prize in the nomination “Miracle-stained arms.” “An insult to the Patriarch – and that was certainly an insult – hurts every member of the Russian Orthodox Church, every Christian person. I am calling on everyone to stop these insults,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told the Russian News Service, commenting on the news:
http://tinyurl.com/c2mp6jo