Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has released an instructional video for people who want to learn judo. Here's a look:
The video, "Let's Learn Judo With Vladimir Putin," was released in Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg, on Tuesday. No word on whether Fedor Emelianenko attended.
The New York Times reports:
A montage on Russian television of the white-robed prime minister body-slamming opponents accompanied the release of the
At a news conference coinciding with Mr. Putin's 56th birthday, the prime minister described the video's title as a "marketing trick."
"Anyone who watches this material will learn not from your humble servant, but from true masters," he said.
The video is part of a growing media library highlighting Mr. Putin's masculinity that includes episodes of Mr. Putin, a former K.G.B. agent, bare-chested on a fishing expedition and in flight in a fighter jet. No cameras were rolling when Mr. Putin was said to have tranquilized the tiger as it stalked the journalists who had accompanied the prime minister and some scientists on a scientific expedition to Russia's Far East in late August.
Judo is a popular sport in Russia, so I suppose this will be well received, but somehow I just can't see this working in the United States. I have a feeling that George Bush will leave the baseball instructional videos to Tom Emanski.
