...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...and his US counterpart Barack Obama
I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something...
sparred over the crisis in Syria in dueling UN speeches on Monday, each accusing the other of fuelling the carnage.
The Russian urged UN General Assembly members to unite to fight the so-called 'Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
group and said it would be a disastrous error not to support Syria's sitting president, Bashir al-Assad.
"We must address the problems that we are all facing and create a broad anti-terror coalition," Putin said in his address, his first to the world body in a decade.
It is, he argued, an "enormous mistake to not cooperate with the Syrian group which is fighting the holy warriors face-to-face."
Obama said Washington was ready to work with Russia and even Iran against ISIL terrorists, but took a swipe at them for supporting Assad, whom he dubbed a child-killing tyrant.
Not to be outdone, the Russian leader blamed the rise of violent extremism on the United States' military interventions in Iraq and Libya, which he said unleashed chaos in the Middle East.
Obama took the podium at the UN General Assembly ahead of Putin and hours before the pair were to hold their first meeting in over two years, at roughly 5:00 pm (2100 GMT).
The US president extended a cautious hand to his traditional foes, suggesting they work together to end the bloodshed in Syria.
"The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict," he said.
But the American leader made clear his opposition to Moscow and Tehran's current policy of arming and supporting Assad.
Rather than a bulwark against jihadist extremism, Obama argued, Assad drives Syrians into the arms of such groups by such acts as dropping "barrel bombs to massacre innocent children."