It must be nice when a foreign politician deigns to visit your much-maligned country to tell how well it is doing, how well its people are living, and what a good job is being done all round. Perhaps less so when that politician happens to be the professional troublemaker and extreme right-winger Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the radical Russian Liberal Democratic Party (a fuller comment from him in Russian here). The only thing that has saved Zhirinovsky from being ignored all together back in his own country is the fact that he has acquired something of a clown status, and thus ensures high ratings for all of the many television programs he is invited to go on.
Unlike the event of Turkmenbashi’s mythical meeting with Putin and Bush, photos memorialising their encounter will not have to be forged.