Putin tells reporter to 'get circumcised'

ABC News ^ | 11/12/02 | staff

[ppaul]

Russia's media expressed has shock over a remark by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-EU summit in which he urged a Western reporter asking about the war in Chechnya to come to Moscow and "get circumcised".

Mr Putin's comments, made at a closing press conference of the Russia-EU summit in Brussels, were played by TVS television station and republished by several major Moscow newspapers and Internet sites.

The Kommersant business daily reports Mr Putin was asked a Danish reporter why Russia was using mine warfare in the separatist North Caucasus republic and exterminating Chechen civilians.

Reports say Mr Putin became infuriated by the question and launched an unprecedented defence of the three-year Chechen war that at one stage went off on a tangent.

"You, if I am not mistaken, represent an ally [of the US war on terror] and are therefore in danger," Mr Putin told the reporter, according to a transcript that appeared in the Vremya Novostei daily.

"They [the Chechens] talk about killing non-Muslims and if you are a Christian, you are in danger. And even if you are an atheist, you are in danger," Mr Putin is quoting as saying.

"If you decide to become a Muslim - even then you are not safe, because traditional Islam contradicts the conditions and goals that they [the Chechens rebels] set.

"But if you are prepared to become the most radical Islamist and prepared to get circumcised - I invite you to Moscow.

"We have specialists that deal with this problem. I suggest that you do such an operation that nothing grows out of you again," Mr Putin reportedly said.

Mr Putin is known for his tough talk that at times becomes interlaced with slang used by criminals and the military.

He launched the war in the predominantly Muslim Chechen republic in October 1999 by threatening to "waste [the Chechens] while they sit in their outhouses".

Russian media say a Kremlin aide explained to reporters after the Brussels press conference that Mr Putin was tired during the summit after a hectic working schedule.

The wide coverage given to Mr Putin's remarks appears unusual for a Russian media that has grown to carefully toe the Kremlin line in recent months.

Advice dismissed

Meanwhile, Mr Putin has brushed aside European advice on a peaceful solution to the Chechen conflict, saying it had to be solved by the Russian and Chechen people alone.

"Of course we listen to advice from our colleagues in Europe," Mr Putin told a news conference in Oslo after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who said he hoped for a peaceful, political solution in Chechnya.

But he added: "It is an internal Russian problem to be solved between the Chechen people and the Russian federation."

Russia has scrapped plans for a partial military pullout from the southerly province since Chechen separatists took a Moscow theatre hostage last month.

The siege ended with the deaths of 128 hostages and 41 rebels.

"We don't want to turn up our noses and say that others' opinions are irrelevant," Mr Putin said.

But he added: "The problem is so complicated that no one can give really good advice."

Mr Putin said Europe had some good examples of conflict resolution but that other conflicts had rumbled on unsolved in other parts of Europe for hundreds of years.

Mr Putin has shown no sign of reining in the Russian military in Chechnya, where thousands of people have died in almost a decade of fighting.

Mr Putin has said a new constitution and elections offer the best prospects of a swift resolution.

"The political process on Chechnya must continue," Mr Schroeder said.

Mr Putin and Mr Schroeder met in Oslo because Mr Putin cancelled a planned visit to Germany last month during the theatre siege. Both men were, by coincidence, on visits to the Nordic nation.

Mr Schroeder and Mr Putin also said a UN resolution seeking to disarm Iraq offered a chance of peace.

Shortly afterwards, Iraq's parliament voted to reject the resolution while leaving the final decision to President Saddam Hussein.

Mr Putin said he hoped Arab countries would bring pressure on Iraq to comply.

Mr Putin said Moscow was keeping up contacts with Baghdad but that only Saddam knew what Iraq would finally decide.

Mr Schroeder reiterated on Monday that Germany would not take part in any US-led attacks on Iraq if Saddam failed to comply fully with the resolution.

Mr Schroeder won popularity before his re-election in September by ruling out sending troops.

[LostTribe]

>I thought, as a religion thing, it was a Jewish practice.

It is actually an ABRAHAMIC practice (Genesis 17). For more on who is who see ISRAELITE HISTORY.

[Travis McGee]

Ya gotta love his candor and his guts!

[stuartcr]

The ones that I personally know, do not want to kill anyone, and their interpretation does not dictate that they should kill all non-Muslims. Everyone has feelings.

[Gritty]

Not all Muslims want to kill people.

No doubt your simple little Liberally-laced factoid is true. So what?

However, neither did many Good Germans, Imperial Japanese, Communist North Koreans, Communist Chinese or Communist North Vietnamese in past wars. Little matter. They were still "the enemy", and needed to be treated as such, just like the fellow-traveling Islamist Muslims!

[dennisw]

No, but they sure want to dominate people.

They submit to fake god Allah then in turn expect us to submit to them. They want to play Allah too.

[isthisnickcool]

What's horrific and sick is the female circumsion or female genital mutilation in Muslim countries.

Islam is evil.

[antaresequity]

Putin Bump...priceless...such frank rebuke of leftist dribble (pun intended)...is refreshing and endearing...I love it...

[paolop]

I aggree, it would be instructive to see the original.

[Catspaw]

I think Vlad was being excessively polite :-))

[Augie]

Speaking of clymers, did you catch this?

becomes interlaced with slang used by criminals and the military.

Interesting choice of words for the day after Veterans' Day.

[the_doc]

You don't agree with Putin's rebuke of our journalist? Based on what I see in the report, I do.

[Diogenes]

While we're dealing with this horribly painful matter, the following has been published today, November 12, by our ever fair-minded, un-biased, non-prejudiced THE NEW YORK TIMES, in its SCIENCE section, page F7:

"CASE AGAINST CIRCUMCISION: 'What your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision," by Drs. Paul M. Fleiss and Frederick M. Hodges (Warner Books $ 14.95).

It has been called the unkindest cut, and readers may well accept that, after they finish this painfully graphic examination of circumcision.

Dr. Fleiss, a Los Angeles pediatrician is harshly critical of the procedure, saying he came to this view after performing a hundred or so circumcisions and seeing 'the suffering, pain and trauma' of the baby.

In his view, the foreskin has unique and important functions. 'Just as the eyelid protects the eye,' he writes, the foreskin protects the end of the penis, 'keeping its surface soft, warm, moist and sensitive.

And yet, Dr. Fleiss says, 'most American medical textbooks depict the human penis, without explanation, as circumcised, as if were so by nature.' Male circumcision, he says, 'IS EXTREMELY RARE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES, FOUND PRIMARILY IN DEVELOPING MUSLIM COUNTRIES, IN ISRAEL AMONG JEWS, IN SOME AFRICAN TRIBES, AND AMONG SOME ABORIGINES.' Routine circumcision, he writes, 'IS MOSTLY UNHEARD OF IN EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA AND NON-MUSLIM ASIA', and became routine in the United States only after World War II. Pediatricians have mixed views. In one survey, one-fourth of them recommend that it be performed in healthy newborns. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology say the benefits are not significant enough to recommend circumcision routinely. The pediatrics group adds, however, that parents can legitimately 'TAKE INTO ACCOUNT CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC TRADITIONS.'"

The writer, for one, preserves his integrity intact!

[Xenalyte]

Creamy-goodness ping!

[SupplySider]

Putin rocks. First a flat tax, then a brave decision on the terrorists who took the theater. Now the most shocking development of all, plain speech by a politician.

[Capt. Tom]

Putin gets it, GWB gets it, a majority of the American people now get it, but the media is living in La-La land.

GWB doesn't get it . Remember "Islam is a religion of peace."

I just hope GWB is being devious, because I would hate to believe he actually think Islam is a religion of peace. - Tom

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I have heard that an uncircumsized penis is a biggie, (no pun intended)with the gays.

[ErnBatavia]

An apparent "Anteater" speaks!

[antidisestablishment]

So, are you saying that they, like liberal Christians and Jews, are not following the tenets of their religion? If so, most here would agree.

If, however, you are insinuating that Islam as a religion does not promote violence as a means to salvation, you are dead wrong. Even the "liberal" muslims who do not personally advocate violence will not stand against it.

[Diogenes]

While we're dealing with this horribly painful matter, the following has been published today, November 12, by our ever fair-minded, un-biased, non-prejudiced THE NEW YORK TIMES, in its SCIENCE section, page F7:

"CASE AGAINST CIRCUMCISION: 'What your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision," by Drs. Paul M. Fleiss and Frederick M. Hodges (Warner Books $ 14.95).

It has been called the unkindest cut, and readers may well accept that, after they finish this painfully graphic examination of circumcision.

Dr. Fleiss, a Los Angeles pediatrician is harshly critical of the procedure, saying he came to this view after performing a hundred or so circumcisions and seeing 'the suffering, pain and trauma' of the baby.

In his view, the foreskin has unique and important functions. 'Just as the eyelid protects the eye,' he writes, the foreskin protects the end of the penis, 'keeping its surface soft, warm, moist and sensitive.

And yet, Dr. Fleiss says, 'most American medical textbooks depict the human penis, without explanation, as circumcised, as if were so by nature.' Male circumcision, he says, 'IS EXTREMELY RARE OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES, FOUND PRIMARILY IN DEVELOPING MUSLIM COUNTRIES, IN ISRAEL AMONG JEWS, IN SOME AFRICAN TRIBES, AND AMONG SOME ABORIGINES.' Routine circumcision, he writes, 'IS MOSTLY UNHEARD OF IN EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA AND NON-MUSLIM ASIA', and became routine in the United States only after World War II. Pediatricians have mixed views. In one survey, one-fourth of them recommend that it be performed in healthy newborns. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology say the benefits are not significant enough to recommend circumcision routinely. The pediatrics group adds, however, that parents can legitimately 'TAKE INTO ACCOUNT CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC TRADITIONS.'"

The writer, for one, preserves his integrity intact!