There is a lot going around about Russian leader Vladimir Putin these days. However, nobody ever expected to hear this one. It seems that, with all the Putin hoopla of late, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) is coming forward with a most peculiar incident involving Vladimir Putin, a pub, a few too many drinks, and himself from the early 1990’s. The story was told in an interview with 89.3 KPCC, and Buzzfeed?picked it up.?He began:
?Oh, it was about 1990 or 1991, and communism had just fallen and the Soviet Union no longer existed, now it was Russia. A group of young political leaders came into my office and they wanted to meet me because I had been a Reagan speechwriter,? Rohrabacher said. ?Well I talked to them and I said, ?I’m spending the weekend here ? do any of you want to play some American football with me and my buddies?? Three of them said, ?Yeah, sure.? I come to find out later that was Putin. He was the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, that’s all we knew. But he did have a huge bodyguard, so maybe that sort of gave a little hint he’s more important than just St. Petersburg.?
Rohrahacher said that he and “a bunch of my right wing friends” played Putin and his Russian friends in a game of football. The teams were not America vs. Russia; they were, indeed, mixed. Afterwards, he and Putin had a bit too much to drink in an Irish pub, where they proceeded to arm wrestle.
?We all ended up going to the Irish Times Pub afterwards, and we were having a little bit too much to drink, I guess,? Rohrabacher said. ?Anyway, we started arguing about who won the Cold War, etc. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had a little bit too much to drink at the pub. So we got down to these arm-wrestling matches and I ended up being paired off with Putin ? and he’s a little guy, but boy, I’ll tell ya: He put me down in a millisecond. He is tough, his muscles are just unbelievable. And then his bodyguard gets up and this buddy of mine and says, ?Oh, I’ll take him.? And my friend put his bodyguard down so it was good.?
Rohrabacher said that Putin’s “tough guy” exterior is not a reason not to engage him in talks regarding Syria. He concluded:
?Ya know, he’s a tough guy. He’s supposed to be a tough guy. That’s what the Russian people want, but that’s no reason we shouldn’t try to work with him.?
Well, that is certainly a bizarre and little known story. There is no telling what Rorhabacher’s reason for telling it is, but hopefully he got his point across, and whatever embarrassment comes of this is worth it.
