Putin revealed as "the devil"

Next to Rob Ford one of the favorite targets of the Toronto Star's soft left journo crew is Vladimir Putin. This morning sports writer Cathal Kelly takes a turn at international relations and is rewarded with a spot on the front page. Here are a few quotes;

Vladimir Putin doesn't make entrances. Like the devil, he appears.

He took a seat up in the rafters, leaned forward like a gargoyle.

...the expression of raw power.

Putin looks like he's wearing his own death mask.

...Putin is full-on evil.

He rules through a personality cult.

...combination of power and malice.

Well! Move over Masha Gessen! This kind of objective and carefully balanced reportage should get Kelly off the sports beat and into the Washington bureau in no time!

Putin the puppy-killer; anti-Putin propaganda at fever pitch on eve of Olympics

With the opening of the Sochi Olympics mere days away the anti-Putin diatribes in Western media are hitting absurd heights.

If it's not homophobia, it's corruption. Or meddling in Ukraine. Or more corruption. Or stifling free speech. Or slapping the bold activists of Pussy Riot in jail. Or homophobia. Or meddling in Syria. Have I mentioned the rampant corruption?... homophobia?

At the weekend the papers were full of breathless reportage on Masha Gessen's in-depth biography of the spunky anti-Putin self-promoters Pussy Riot.

But the wicked Putin knows no bounds. Among his manifold malevolent failings there has been one kept secret until now; the man hates man's best friend. They are killing the stray dogs in Sochi in advance of the Olympics!

Who can even bear to imagine such evil?

What do you suppose happens to stray dogs in Frankfurt or Milan or New York or Toronto? Are they superannuated in doggie retirement homes? No, they are corralled and disposed of.

"Put down."

Killed.

Is it a pleasant fact to contemplate? No.

Is it newsworthy? No.

But it sure is when it happens in Russia.