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Opinion: McCain comments on Russia’s new president, so does Dmitry’s wife

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Stick with us a sec on this one, folks.

Never one to miss an opportunity to speak out on national security and foreign affairs, which just so happen to be viewed as his political strong suits, Sen. John McCain issued a statement today on the inauguration of the new Russian president with the unpronounceable name and the close ties to the guy who’s really running the Russian show, Vladimir Putin.

While the surrogates of his Democratic would-be competitiors bickered over whether Sen. Hillary Clinton should give up her race before Sen. Barack Obama gets enough delegates to secure the party’s presidential nomination, McCain said:

‘I sincerely hope the beginning of the (Dmitry) Medvedev presidency will also be the beginning of a new era for Russia and for U.S.-Russian relations. The next U.S. President should look forward to working closely with Pres. Medvedev on the great issues of our day.’

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‘Today,’ McCain added, ‘Pres. Medvedev pledged that his greatest duty would be to develop civil and economic freedom for the Russian people. I welcome this pledge and hope Pres. Medvedev will soon begin restoring and strengthening the institutions of democracy, including a free press and the rights of a vibrant Russian political opposition to express its views and run for office. That is what the Russian people want and deserve, and it is also what we want for Russia.’

Yeh, yeh, fine. Gotta be honest with Ticket readers here. The real reason for this item is to publish this photo of the new Russian president’s wife, Svetlana, celebrating her husband’s ascension to the technically top spot over there. Doesn’t she look happy?

Loyal Ticket reader Brian spotted this photo elsewhere, which reminded him and us profoundly of our very first Ticket item today with a photo of another president, actually an ex-president, named Bill Clinton. Wild Bill looks almost as happy watching his spouse as Svetlana.

The item from this morning, which actually examines the staging of some of Sen. Clinton’s events, is here. A duplicate of that photo of Happy Bill is on the jump of this item, just click the Read More line below here.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo Credits: Vladimir Rodionov / Kremlin pool (top)

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images (bottom)

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