[imagesource: YouTube]
The president of Russia Vladimir Putin is sexist.
But that’s no surprise, is it?
At a Russian Energy Week panel held in Moscow on Wednesday, the moderator, an experienced American business journalist asked Putin a question.
But it wasn’t to his liking and so he unleashed a flood of sexism, mocking and patronising CNBC journalist Hadley Gamble by basically saying that she is too “beautiful” to understand his point.
The Daily Beast wrote that he appeared to be channelling “the stereotype of Russia’s uneducated working classes”, “his inner Gopnik” during the on-stage interview:
The reporter had pressed Putin on reports of Russia withholding gas supplies to Europe to drive up prices, and after the Russian leader dismissed the claim, she asked how Moscow could convince its European partners that it’s a reliable gas supplier in light of such reports.
“A beautiful woman, pretty. I tell her one thing, and she says something completely different. As if she didn’t hear what I said,” Putin said, turning to the male members of the audience.
…“I will repeat it for you once again,” Putin said, before insisting that Moscow has actually increased its gas supplies to Europe and that there is “nothing to support [the idea] that we use energy as a kind of weapon.”
“Did I really say something so hard to understand?” he asked.
You can check out the full discussion over here, with the patronising comments coming in around the 5:40 mark:
Meanwhile, Kremlin-owned media outlets are following suit while covering the US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland’s visit to Russia.
The media has apparently gone into “overdrive to mock her as just a token female in government”, bemoaning the “advancement of femininity” in the West.
It seems like in Russia, outdated chauvinistic ideas run in steady supply.
[source:thedailybeast]
