spin doctor

With dainty, almost balletic hand gestures and the faint trace of an ironic smile on his lips, Kiselev asks with mock concern "what's up" with Barack Obama. The US president's ratings, he says, are on the slide, while Russian President Vladimir Putin's continue to rise.

Turning to another camera, he goes on to denounce the US for trying to spread revolution with "terrorists" in Syria and "fascists" in Ukraine. "They shamelessly spy on everyone, wanting to control the world, but they suffer one defeat after another," he concludes.

It was a typical Kiselev performance, if not quite a vintage one. Two weeks earlier, he had mocked what he said were President Obama's waning powers, as symbolised by his greying hair, before boasting that Russia was the only country "genuinely capable of turning the USA into radioactive ash".

Mr Kiselev himself is now the subject of a travel ban and asset freeze by the EU.

But at home he appears to be riding high. A recent poll by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) named him as Russia's second most respected and authoritative journalist. Another FOM poll found that more than 50% of respondents thought it acceptable to "distort information" in the interests of the state.

ВВС

drinkers in art

Drunkenness has never looked as beautiful as it does in Titian's painting of a wine-fuelled party in the open air. These drinkers conduct their antics with a magical grace. The dancers do not fall over. The wine jug balanced on a man's hand does not go flying. Wine has freed everyone from inhibition and made them amorous. In vino veritas. These drinkers do not yell at each other, vomit or pass out. Instead they all seem to be falling in love. One woman lies in a naked ecstasy as wine unleashes her passion.

theguardian

сейчас на Эхе

Согласно новому законодательству Андрея Фефелова тоже нельзя назвать невежественным кретином? А как тогда?

к новым свободам

За участие в протестах - 5 лет, за перепост Навального - 3 года. А за чтение Навального - ничего? А за чтение Навального вслух? Ну хоть двушечку надо же давать.