Putin digs at Yushchenko-Saakashvili rendezvous

November20200920:34

Speaking to journalists on the heels of his talks with Premier Yulia Tymoshenko in Yalta, Russia Premier Vladimir Putin allowed several digs at both Ukraine and Georgia presidents. Putin’s interview was broadcast live late Nov. 19 by Ukraine’s major TV channel ICTV.

Answering a question from a Russian journalist if he knew about the visit of Georgia president to Kyiv the same day, Putin responded, «Do you think I keep track of Saakashvili movements and activities?»

«I know what we’ve been busy with with Tymoshenko. My negotiating team includes my first deputy, another 2 deputies for industry, energy and transport. We discussed cooperation in space, engineering, nuclear power engineering and plane-building», the Russian premier explained.

«We have reached agreements on several issues vital to both Russia and Ukraine», he added.

«I’ve no idea what our colleagues have been busy with. I think that both presidents [switching to a joking tone] always have something to talk about, something to discuss, somewhere to go», Putin jibed.

He then quoted the lines of a well-known poem running as «retired warriors recalled their past days and the battles they fought in», changing the last line to «and the battles they lost».

«What can I advise to both presidents? They should better have supper without neckties. Neckties are expensive now. What will happen if Saakashvili sups on his necktie?» [A reference to a video footage of the time of the Georgia-Russia 2008 war showing Saakashvili chewing on his necktie during a telephone conversation].

To this jibe Yulia Tymoshenko added, laughingly, that she would have her supper wearing no tie [in a likely hint that she was hungry].