Anyone care to translate this into English?
So it seems like
Putin lost his cool:
Putin was then asked by a reporter from Le Monde about the use of heavy artillery and mines in Chechnya, and began replying, defending his policy on Chechnya, before suddenly becoming agitated and launching into a verbal assault on the reporter. Speaking in Russian, Putin told the reporter that the radical Muslim forces fighting in Chechnya endanger all non-Muslims, who are called "crusaders" if they are Christian, and also place non-radical Muslims in danger.
...
Putin then said: "If you are prepared to become a radical Muslim and undergo circumcision, I invite you to Moscow." [ Ed.: ??? ]
"Our nation is multi-confessional, we have specialists in this field who can deal with this. I suggest you have an operation so that nothing grows out of you again," the Russian leader said. The remarks were not translated from Russian during the news conference, so as not to embarrass E.U. leaders present, but Russian speakers in the audience were stunned by the Putin's words.
...
EU officials, informed later of the actual words used by Putin, said the remarks were "out of place" and "completely inappropriate." Putin has been known to lose his cool over Chechnya at news conferences, using slang and descending into jargon used by criminals.
In October 1999, before he launched a massive military attack on rebel forces, Putin famously declared that he would "waste the bandits in the sh**house."
On Tuesday, the Russian media appeared as shocked as Putin's aides, jumping on the story. Russian television networks repeatedly broadcast the tape with Putin's outburst, and Russian newspapers gave the remarks front-page coverage, with the respected Gazeta daily headlining its story "Putin suggests Europe gets circumcised," while the Vremya Novostei used "Invitation to a circumcision" as its headline. The Kommersant daily said the European summit had ended in scandal because of Putin's heated outburst.
News coverage of the Kaliningrad agreement was overshadowed by the remarks, but there is no sign that the outburst will hurt the tough-talking president's ratings.
Following his sordid remark three years ago, Putin's ratings jumped as he was seen as a no nonsense guy who would be ruthless with terrorists and separatists.
Is a "circumcision" slang for something else in Russian? It seems like a weird thing to say, but not a tremendous insult...just sort of incoherent. I suppose something's been lost in the translation.
