You will all thank me for this.
Putin was asked the following question during a “2 June press event”:http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2006/06/02/1121_type82914type82917type84779_106433.shtml: “will Russia participate in economic sanctions against Iran if Iran does not agree with the existing offer? And will Russia participate in negotiations concerning Iran?”
He replied:
VLADIMIR PUTIN:
There is a proverb that says if a grandmother had certain reproductive organs, she would have been a grandfather. Politics does not accept subjunctive mood.
Have a good evening.
I know the saying as…
If my Aunt had balls, she’d be my Uncle…
The ‘Nuclear’ negotiations have certainly entered another phase.
Iran has very recently declared that it will continue to price its oil sales in US Dollars, rather than establish its Oil Bourse dealing in Euros (which many said was the REAL reason for the US threat). See http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snOGN_article106153.html for details.
Russia has recently stated that it wishes to establish an Oil Exchange selling energy in Rubles. Perhaps this is the new threat to the US OilDollar hegemony.
Interesting times…..
Wow. I was raised on the German Jewish expression, “if Grandmother had wheels, she’d be a bus”—I didn’t realize that expression had a much, er, pithier Russian cousin.
Yep, there is such an expression in Russia. Putin likes these kinds of phrases.
Some one should tell him one of our favorite American expressions:
Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.
Will Rogers
US humorist
(1879 – 1935)
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
Jeffrey,
Please, correct me if I am missing something here. I really don’t think that this phrase says anything new about the Russian stance on Iran. Hasn’t the Russian policy on the whole Iran kerfuffle been pretty pragmatic in the past several years (when Putin actually started getting the then MinAtom institutions under stricter controls in their dealings with Iran)? Same with Putin’s nonproliferation policy overall, which has been pretty consistent, even though for the Russians Iran is much more than a nonproliferation challenge. I don’t think Putin has many knee jerk reactions and is not going to let the Russian position be sold cheap… this phrase just affirms that.
Putin got it wrong, of course. Neither sanctions against Iran nor negotiations with it are in the “if a grandmother had balls” category.
We also should remember: “if a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump its ass a-hoppin’.”
I just saw Moscow Times reporting of the “grandma” bit: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/08/009.html
…be my grandfather,” Putin replied, demonstrating the unsuitability of conditional clauses in political discourse”
I always preferred his earlier standup, like the Abbot & Costello routine with Kissinger:
“Look Putin, you need to know all the players in this game – Who’s got the enriched uranium?”
“That’s Hu, he’s chinese”