Ah, Vlad, could you be any more divorced from reality? Did you trade brains with Bush? Are all world leaders idiots these days? Or were you just stupid, egotistical and power hungry to begin with? Must be that one.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has described himself as the world’s only “pure” democrat and attacked the United States and Europe, which have criticized him, for falling short of their own ideals.

In an interview with Western media released on Monday, he rejected Western criticism that he has centralized power in the Kremlin, marginalized the opposition and increased state control over the media.

Asked whether he agreed with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s description of him as an “impeccable democrat”, Putin replied laughing:

“Of course I am an absolute, pure democrat. But you know the problem? It’s not even a problem, it’s a real tragedy. The thing is that I am the only one, there just aren’t any others in the world.”

He lists a few instances of the West’s (the U.S.) detours from human rights:

“Let’s look what happens in North America — sheer horror: torture, the homeless, Guantanamo, keeping people in custody without trial or investigation,” Putin said in the interview ahead of this week’s summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrial nations.

“Look what’s going on in Europe: the harsh treatment of demonstrators, the use of rubber bullets, tear gas in one capital or another, the killing of demonstrators in the streets.”

Uh huh. ‘Cause that never happens in Russia. Russia doesn’t imprison corporate executives to restore state monopolies or poison dissenters or use oil as a weapon or deny the right of free speech or have homeless people or block protests for basic human rights.

I really think it’s time for Putin to shut the fuck up. Americans do a good enough job at criticizing ourselves as it is, Putin should focus on ruining his own country.

Or does “democrat” translate into “neo-dictator” in Russian?