When he was asked about my mischievous insult on a televised call-in program a few days later, Putin unleashed quite a tirade. “Mr. McCain fought in Vietnam,” he observed. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore. . . . He was captured and they kept him not just in prison, but in a pit for several years. Anyone would go crazy. It wasn’t the first time I had heard that insult, and I laughed it off. Putin normally affects insouciance when he’s trying to offend a foreign critic who’s annoyed
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