So Arnie is in Moscow today. He tweeted his arrival and received a response from Pres. Medvedev faster than a 12-year-old girl responds to a Justin Bieber status update on FB. The Gubernator later popped up on the infamous Moscow Metro in rush hour, something that I bet hasn’t been done by a Russian politician, well, ever. In fact, his trip has been so successful that Medvedev bemoaned that Arnie lacks Russian citizenship since “We have a vacancy [here in Moscow].” My favorite picture so far is below, which reminded me of a similar photo op from a different time. (Note that the Terminator should always ride shotgun):
And the less flattering picture from a few years back, with Putin’s authoritarian tendencies on full display:
Here is the video of Medvedev and Arnie…Dima can barely contain his excitement, but who can really blame him…
The Russia Monitor 
What is it about Arnie that makes everyone want to be ruled by him? It wasn’t that long ago – when he was still acting like a hardcore conservative Republican – that the Republicans were talking up a constitutional amendment that would make it possible for foreign-born citizens to run for president, coincident with his capture of the Governor’s post.
How can you tell that “Dima” can barely contain his excitement? Are you an electronic media psychic?
I wrote that about the video from the press conference, where Dima is red-faced and cannot bring himself to even look Arnie in the eye. He kind of just talks off into space. Still, I think he looks totally psyched in the video above,
Oops! I zoned out for a moment and thought I was replying to a Julia Ioffe piece, because she’s right below you in my blogroll, and I was just stepping through one by one. Sometimes she annoys me with her tendency to put words in people’s mouths or thoughts in their heads without any evidence at all. The newspaper background should have clued me in. Sorry about that – something about her just makes me combative.
I’d go so far as to say Mr. Medvedev, although he has considerable experience as an industry heavyweight, is oddly uncomfortable in public settings, or at least has difficulty coming across naturally.
and Freud smiled
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