And While We're on the Subject of Perverse: Putin Kissed Boy "Like a Kitten"

Don't you sorta miss the old Soviet Union where the leader would just have the boy "disappeared" by the KGB and put in the gulag in Siberia for the rest of his natural life? Bizarr-oooo!

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Vladimir Putin's decision to stop a small boy as he walked through the Kremlin and kiss his stomach was prompted by a desire to "touch him like a kitten," the Russian president said on Thursday.

The five-year-old boy, identified as Nikita Konkin by the press, was clearly stunned by the kiss and speculation over Putin's motivation has run wild in the week since it happened.

..."People came up and I began talking to them, among them this little boy. He seemed to me very independent, sure of himself and at the same time defenseless so to speak, an innocent boy and a very nice little boy," Putin told the Web cast.

"I tell you honestly, I just wanted to touch him like a kitten and that desire of mine ended in that act."

Wheeze!