"The thing I noticed in the various pictures of Putin visiting the survivors in the hospital is that he didn't show any emotion at all."
Russians have different cultural expectations of how people act in that kind of situation than we do.
You know...I feel as though the events of the past year or so have been dedicated to smearing Bush and proving him wrong via books, movies, grandstanding at the 9/11 commissions, and a slew of negative news out of Iraq, etc. etc. But in the past two weeks or so, it seems as though all of the critics are slowly but surely being silenced and having to put their foot in their mouth. It really makes me happy to see Bush starting to get some of the credit and respect that he has deserved over the past year or so. Things are going well guys!!
... Russians have different cultural expectations of how people act in that kind of situation than we do.
... If you can't read the emotions of the Ruskies DON'T confuse them with your own.
I based my comments about Putin on a large number of photographs I had seen posted in threads here included images of many survivors, family members, soldiers, medical personnel, local authorities, and Putin. Putin stood out among all these people as having an utterly impassive expression while visiting the survivors in hospital, so I don't think I am merely being culturally insensitive.