During the annual televised phone-in with Russians, Vladimir Putin blamed American special ops for killing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and inferred Arizona Senator John McCain a war criminal. “Who did this?” Putin said. “Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then − through the Special Forces, who should not have been there − they [...]

Vladimir Putin‘s potential return to the Russian presidency is being met with more than a little resistance by many in the nation. The AP reports that Saturday saw protests of thousands in Moscow against United Russia, Putin’s party, and at least fifteen other cities, with protesters chanting in some cities “Putin is a louse” and alleging voter fraud in an election where the former president’s party won about 50% of the vote.

Disclosure: I’ve never been to Russia, much less participated in one of its elections. But from what I’m able to piece together based on this ad for Vladimir Putin‘s United Russia Party, their voting process is ever so slightly different from our own. Here in the States, for example, one enters a voting booth prepared to get entirely screwed over, but in democratic Russia… You screw the voting process! Literally! Remarkable!

The New York Daily News‘ Nina Mandell put it best: it’s a case of “naked political ambition.” Indeed. A group calling itself “Putin’s Army” seeks to show support for the Russian prime minister by showing that Vladimir Putin‘s got the sport of “beautiful, young and smart girls.” Oh, and naked. There’s that part also. Putin, who’s considering a presidential run, is not connected to the online effort, which promises stripping campaign supporters a chance not just to boost Putin’s standing in the polls, but also to win themselves an iPad 2. And so there’s that.

And now it’s officially summer. Remember sexy Russian spy Anna Chapman? No? She got caught spying on America and was deported, but because she was “sexy,” Joe Biden wanted to trade Rush Limbaugh for her. She was also semi-naked a bunch of times. Anyway, she’s finally wheedled her way back into the post-Weinerpocalypse news cycle– this time for threatening to sue organizers of the “Silver Boot” awards in Moscow, who graciously lauded her in the “Shameless Self-Promotion” category.

Russian prime minister and current presidential candidate (again) Vladimir Putin hasn’t exactly made a name for himself as a friend to the press, but last week he took the time to prove he appreciates fan mail. Texan Outdoor Life columnist Gayne Young, who devoted much of his editorial space to the wonders of Putin’s manly escapades in Siberia, sent a humble interview request to the Russian premier, hoping for nothing. He got an appreciative 8,000 word rumination on nature and the meaning of life.

Dictators have the darnedest luck. The Russian government would have likely gotten in a fair bit of trouble for invading neighboring Georgia in 2008 if everyone, including President George W. Bush, wasn’t too busy slappin’ booties at the Beijing Olympics. In 2009, the deaths of protesters in Iran over the legitimacy of their elections was silenced by the passing of Michael Jackson. And now, it seems, Libya’s elderly Caligula Muammar Gaddafi seems to have lucked out as well, with a devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake shifting the epicenter of all media coverage to the other side of the world: Tokyo, Japan.

Renaissance man Vladimir Putin is at it again. Inspired by the illustrious musical repertoire of Venezuelan TV show host/crooner Hugo Chavez (or perhaps feeling the ’90s vibes after watching acclaimed saxophonist Bill Clinton recreate his presidency yesterday, the Russian president took to a lonely piano to play a heartfelt rendition, then sing a heartfelt rendition, of “Blueberry Hill.” In English. On television.

Vladimir Putin, free speech advocate? The Russian prime minister is hitting back on the West, hard, for their treatment of Julian Assange, bemoaning the death of Western democracy in light of his arrest in Britain for an Interpol warrant out for “sex crimes.”

President George W. Bush‘s media tour for Decision Points is well into week #2, but there are still nuggets of under-reported new information that is emerging.

Like his “complicated relationship” with former Russian President Vladimir Putin – with two stories that would be great for the sequel to W.

Well, that’s one way to make headlines. Julia Ioffe‘s “Moscow Diaries” blog ran an item yesterday about a group of female journalism students from Moscow State University who decided to give Vladimir Putin a… unique birthday present: a calendar featuring half-naked pictures of them.

Heads up, Sarah Palin: Crossbowing-Whales-From-An-Inflatable-Raft is the new Shooting-Wolves-From-A-Helicopter.

Just yesterday, Russian President Vladmir Putin “took part in a wildlife experiment” (Read: tough guy photo op) where he fired a crossbow dart into an endangered grey whale to gather a skin sample.

During a recent state-sponsored trip to Italy, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was asked by a reporter about the successful “political marraige” that he shares with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. As Andy Towle points out, Putin’s response seemed odd in that he denied “there was anything romantic about their ‘marriage.’” Hmmm…

Not that there was any doubt that men’s figure skating silver medalist Evgeni Plushenko was in the running for worst sportsman of the 2012 Olympic Games before, but Plushenko, always the fierce competitor, has taken his unique ability to alter reality to new heights with his latest online antics. After spending a good amount of last week trashing gold medalist Evan Lysacek for not being able to perform a quadruple jump (“It’s not men’s figure skating… it’s dancing”), he has convinced himself that he didn’t lose a gold medal – he won a platinum one.

It’s time again for Time magazine to choose their “Person of the Year” — but it may not be a person! An esteemed panel including Dr. Oz thinks it might be Twitter or The Economy. What are the chances? Phil Bump doesn’t like taking chances, so he breaks it all down by statistical probability: How likely is it that the Time “Person of the Year” will actually be … a person?

GQ is apparently none too keen to make available their Sept. article about Russia (‘Vladimir Putin’s Dark Rise to Power’) to the Russians. In fact they are so serious about keeping it out of Russia one wonders if the piece contains U.S. nuclear codes. But what about that pesky Internet?

Erin Andrews, the ESPN Sportscaster, was the victim of a peephole video last month when someone rigged a small camera to record her changing in her hotel room. As a guy who is retro-fitting a prosthetic eye to be a video camera, I have followed the debate about video ethics and privacy closely. Because my video camera eye (a working field model is nearly done! Stand by!) is a bit creepy I get a lot of criticism for potentially invading people’s privacy.