A lovely man, wouldn't you say?

So Vladimir Putin thinks that there is a double standard applied by the west when it comes to elections. This annoys him, because Vlad doesn't think there should be any standards in elections, unless you count 'making sure your side wins' as a standard.

He is also upset with Polish Prime Minister Aleksander Kwasniewski for suggesting that "Russia without Ukraine is better than Russia with Ukraine".

"If we interpret this [statement by Kwasniewski] as striving to limit Russia's ability to develop relations with its neighbours, then it means a desire to isolate the Russian Federation," he said.

Crazy Poles, always afraid of an expansionist Russia! Aren't you ever going to get over the fact that they destroyed your country and ruled you for most of the past 200 years?

Tell me this man is not starting to sound more and more like the Russian leaders of old.

In a scornful reference to the revolutionary symbols in Georgia and Ukraine, Mr Putin said he was against "permanent rose or sky blue revolutions". In Russian, the words "rose" and "sky blue" are also slang for "gays".

Because democracy? It's kind of a gay thing. When isn't homophobia appropriate?

And who didn't see this one coming: He is belittling the international election monitors for overseeing the Iraqi elections from Jordan. Now, I think it's a bad idea just because it's a bad idea. But it is also a bad idea because now you've got men like Vladimir Putin who can claim that the elections are a sham.

The West, and especially Bush, need to accept that this man is not an ally. He has no interest in democracy, as he has made quite clear. The only thing he is interested in is regaining Russian power. And that would be a very bad thing for the world.