JANUARY 8, 2017


NEWS AND VIEWS


THE REPORT WAS “LEAKED TO NBC BEFORE I WAS TOLD”/THE HACK/STABLEMATES/THE KISS/AND MORE

IN MY OPINION THE TERM “STABLEMATES,” IS A STRANGE AND SUGGESTIVE WAY TO DESCRIBE HIS (APPARENTLY NON-EXISTENT) “RELATIONSHIP” WITH PUTIN. HIS VARIOUS STATEMENTS ABOUT THEIR FRIENDSHIP ARE FASCINATING IN THE WAYS THEY CONFLICT WITH EACH OTHER OVER TIME. HE STILL HASN’T ACKNOWLEDGED THAT PUTIN DID IT SO HE WOULD BEAT CLINTON, AS THAT WOULD TEND TO SUGGEST ACTIVE COMPLICITY ON HIS PART TO STEAL THE ELECTION BY UNLAWFUL MEANS, AND THAT JUST MIGHT DISQUALIFY TRUMP AS PRESIDENT. THE FACT THAT PEOPLE ARE QUESTIONING WHAT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRUMP AND PUTIN MIGHT REALLY BE LIKE IS NOT SURPRISING.

WINSTON CHURCHILL’S FAMOUS QUOTATION, TAKEN HERE FROM BRAINY QUOTE.COM, READS: “RUSSIA IS A RIDDLE WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY INSIDE AN ENIGMA.” IN MY OPINION DONALD TRUMP CAN BE DESCRIBED IN THE SAME WAY. THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG FOUR YEARS, I’M AFRAID.



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-cyber-idUSKBN14S0O6

WORLD NEWS | Sun Jan 8, 2017 | 3:29pm EST
Trump acknowledges Russia role in U.S. election hacking: aide
By Toni Clarke and Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON

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President-elect Donald Trump accepts the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia engaged in cyber attacks during the U.S. presidential election and may take action in response, his incoming chief of staff said on Sunday.

Reince Priebus said Trump believed Russia was behind the intrusions into the Democratic Party organizations, although Priebus did not clarify whether the president-elect agreed that the hacks were directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He accepts the fact that this particular case was entities in Russia, so that's not the issue," Priebus said on "Fox News Sunday."

It was the first acknowledgment from a senior member of the Republican president-elect's team that Trump had accepted that Russia directed the hacking and subsequent disclosure of Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump had rebuffed allegations that Russia was behind the hacks or was trying to help him win, saying the intrusions could have been carried out by China or a 400-pound hacker on his bed.

With less than two weeks until his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has come under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans to accept intelligence community findings on Russian hacking and other attempts by Moscow to influence the Nov. 8 election. A crucial test of Republican support for Trump comes this week with the first confirmation hearings for his Cabinet picks.

A U.S. intelligence report last week said Putin directed a sophisticated influence campaign including cyber attacks to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and support Trump.

The report, commissioned by Democratic President Barack Obama in December, concluded vote tallies were not affected by Russian interference, but did not assess whether it influenced the outcome of the vote in other ways.

'ACTION MAY BE TAKEN'

After receiving a briefing on Friday from leaders of the U.S. intelligence agencies, Trump did not refer specifically to Russia's role in the presidential campaign.

In a statement, he acknowledged that "Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat(ic) National Committee."

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told Reuters the president-elect's conclusions remained the same and that Priebus' comments were in line with Friday's statement.

Priebus, the former Republican National Committee chairman Trump tapped as White House chief of staff, said Trump planned to order the intelligence community to make recommendations as to what should be done. "Action may be taken," he said, adding there was nothing wrong with trying to have a good relationship with Russia and other countries.

Republican lawmakers pushed back on Sunday on the strategy of cozying up to Putin.

Two senior Republican senators urged Trump to punish Russia in response to U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that Putin personally directed efforts aimed at influencing the election.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said evidence was conclusive that Putin sought to influence the election - a point that Trump has refuted.

"In a couple weeks, Donald Trump will be the defender of the free world and democracy," Graham said. "You should let everybody know in America, Republicans and Democrats, that you're going to make Russia pay a price for trying to interfere."

On Saturday, Trump wrote on Twitter that having a better relationship with Russia was a "good thing."

U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said three U.S. presidents had tried and failed to be friends with Putin.

"I’m just not sure it’s possible," Nunes said on the "Fox News Sunday" program. "I’ve cautioned his administration to be careful with Putin, as he remains a bad actor."

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Adam Schiff, said it was alarming to Democrats and Republicans to hear the president-elect continue to speak in terms of "making nice" with Putin.

"It's not realistic and we need to be clear-eyed and sober about just what the Russians are about," Schiff said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed it was not unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians. He added on CBS, however, that the Russians remained a "big adversary, and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election."

Obama, who himself tried to "reset" relations with Russia after he took office in 2009, told NBC he did not think he had underestimated the Russian president.

"But I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation for cyber hacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating," he said in an interview with "Meet the Press" broadcast on Sunday.

(Additional reporting and writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Caren Bohan and Peter Cooney)



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tweets-on-serious-intelligence-leaks-to-media/

Trump tweets on "serious" intelligence leaks to media
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
January 8, 2017, 3:27 PM


Continuing his criticisms of alleged intelligence leaks to the media, Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to slam the “serious” issue once more.

He alleged in a tweet that “classified and/or highly confidential” information in an intelligence report on Russia hacking the U.S. election was leaked to NBC News.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Before I, or anyone, saw the classified and/or highly confidential hacking intelligence report, it was leaked out to @NBCNews. So serious!
1:56 PM - 8 Jan 2017
7,900 7,900 Retweets 25,293 25,293 likes

The NBC article Mr. Trump is likely referring to quoted “a senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge” of the report given to President Obama on Thursday. The president-elect was later briefed on the report the following day. A 15-page declassified version was also released last week.

NBC, in its Thursday report, had quoted the source as saying that “highly classified intercepts illustrate Russian government planning and direction of a multifaceted campaign by Moscow to undermine the integrity of the American political system.”

NBC’s report came after the Washington Post first published details of the intelligence review Thursday -- which included particulars on senior Russian government officers celebrating Mr. Trump’s election night victory and information on “actors” that had stolen emails from the Democratic party and passed them on to the WikiLeaks information dumping site.

Last week, the president-elect also threatened an investigation into the intelligence leak, tweeting that he would ask the respective chairs of the House and Senate intelligence committee to further scrutinize it.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I am asking the chairs of the House and Senate committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with NBC prior to me seeing it.
11:51 AM - 6 Jan 2017
25,493 25,493 Retweets 89,050 89,050 likes

On Sunday, Mr. Trump also went on to criticize NBC’s Sunday political talk show, “Meet the Press,” for reportedly editing an interview with Kellyanne Conway, the recently appointed counselor to the president in the incoming administration.

Though it has long been customary for television news outlets to cut down interviews to fit into limited broadcast air time, Mr. Trump blasted the “dishonest media” for their “terrible” interview in a tweet. He claimed that the morning show had “cut out 9 of her 10 minutes.”

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Kellyanne Conway went to @MeetThePress this morning for an interview with @chucktodd. Dishonest media cut out 9 of her 10 minutes. Terrible!
11:46 AM - 8 Jan 2017
9,840 9,840 Retweets 28,661 28,661 likes

Minutes later, he then retweeted the message message below from the news outlet, which included a link to a 10-minute long clip of Conway’s appearance on “Meet the Press”:

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter
Follow
Meet the Press ✔ @MeetThePress
Watch our interview with @KellyannePolls: Russia "did not succeed" in attempts to sway election http://nbcnews.to/2i5hKXT #MTP
11:17 AM - 8 Jan 2017
3,072 3,072 Retweets 10,135 10,135 likes



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/top-russians-celebrated-when-trump-won-intel-report-says-source-n703741

U.S. Has ID'd Russians Who Gave Hacked Emails to WikiLeaks
by WILLIAM ARKIN, KEN DILANIAN and HALLIE JACKSON
NEWS JAN 6 2017, 11:56 AM ET

Play Video -- Inside the Russian Hacking Report That President Obama Received Thursday 1:29
Play -- U.S. Intel Chiefs Discuss Russian Hacking, Trump in Senate Hearing 2:02
Play Ryan: Russia Clearly Tried to Meddle in Our Political System
Related: FBI Director James Comey: 2016 'a Challenging Year'
Related: DNI Chief Clapper Takes Swipe at Trump, Assange as He Defends Russia Hack Intel


A senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge confirmed to NBC News that the report on Russian hacking delivered to President Obama Thursday says that U.S. intelligence picked up senior Russian officials celebrating Donald Trump's win.

The U.S. has also identified Russian actors who turned over stolen Democratic material to WikiLeaks, the source told NBC News Thursday.

The source described the intelligence about the celebration, first reported by the Washington Post, as a minor part of the overall intelligence report, which makes the case that Russia intervened in the election.

"Highly classified intercepts illustrate Russian government planning and direction of a multifaceted campaign by Moscow to undermine the integrity of the American political system," said the official.

The source also noted, however, that communication intercepts are viewed with caution because they are subject to interpretation.

The public report on the hacking will be released sometime Friday, a senior congressional staffer told NBC News.

The staffer, who has been briefed on the classified report, said that anyone who sees the evidence would be convinced. "What you will see is that there were evolving goals over time. At the end, they were trying to elect Trump," they said.

President Obama said Thursday he has full faith in the report, but Trump has been voicing skepticism about the intelligence community's findings. The president said he thought his successor would change his mind when he gets the details.

The U.S. has also identified Russian actors who turned over stolen Democratic material to WikiLeaks, the source told NBC News Thursday.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
How did NBC get "an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented?" Who gave them this report and why? Politics!
7:24 PM - 5 Jan 2017
20,659 20,659 Retweets 66,818 66,818 likes

The official agreed to talk to NBC News after the Post published leaked details of the review because the official felt that the details the paper's report focused too much on the Russian celebration and not enough on the thrust of the report.

Two top intelligence officials with direct knowledge told NBC News that the report on Russian hacking also details Russian cyberattacks not just against the Democratic National Committee, but the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department and American corporations.

Some of the hacks were successful, say the officials, while others were thwarted.

The report, on which Obama was also orally briefed, explains what intelligence agencies believe are Moscow's motives, including, in part, a desire to disrupt the American democratic process.

But the intelligence analysts who prepared the report also concluded that the hacks were payback for the Obama administration's questioning of Vladimir Putin's legitimacy as president.

The report tracks Russian cyber activity during the 2016 presidential campaign, but also goes back as far as 2008.

It does not speculate on whether Russian interference, including the alleged hacks of Democratic Party emails and the subsequent leaking on those emails on the internet, affected the outcome of the 2016 contest.



SO WHAT HAS TRUMP ACTUALLY SAID ABOUT PUTIN??

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-timeline-bad-bromance-n621131

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: Timeline of a Bad Bromance
by CORKY SIEMASZKO
POLITICS AUG 2 2016, 12:31 PM ET

Video -- Trump on Putin: What is their 'relationship'? 1:46
Play -- Trump Kissing Putin Mural Draws Eyeballs 1:01
Image: LITHUANIA-US-MURAL-TRUMP-PUTIN, People walk past a mural on a restaurant wall depicting Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with an passionate kiss in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. PETRAS MALUKAS / AFP - Getty Images
Play -- Trump Says He and Putin Would Get Along 'Very Well' 0:29
Play -- Donald Trump on Vladmir Putin: 'He is a Strong Leader' 2:28
Play -- Putin on Trump: He Is A Bright Personality 0:48


They're friends. They're strangers. They talk. They don't talk.

It's not entirely clear.

The on-again, off-again relationship between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is either a figment of the Republican presidential nominee's imagination or a bad bromance between two alpha males.

But even if it's true they're not locking lips like they are in a mural painted on the side of a Lithuanian barbecue joint, public utterances suggest Trump and Putin are in a mutual admiration society of sorts — and have been on each other's radars for years.

In response to an inquiry from NBC News, a Kremlin spokesman insisted Putin and Trump haven't spoken.

"We've said it many times before, President Putin has never had any contacts with Trump, never spoken to him, including by telephone," Dmitry Peskov said. "The same goes for all of his staff."


Here's a timeline of the relationship — whatever it may really be:


June 18, 2013: Trump muses about becoming bosom buddies with Putin.

"Will he become my new best friend?" Trump asked of Putin in a tweet wondering whether the Russian leader would attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant Trump brought to Moscow.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?
11:17 PM - 18 Jun 2013
54,646 54,646 Retweets 41,359 41,359 likes
October 3, 2013: Trump says Putin is "outsmarting" the U.S.

"I think he's done really a great job of outsmarting our country," Trump told Larry King after Putin dissuaded the U.S. from attacking Syria by arranging for the removal of President Bashar Assad's chemical weapons.

March 21, 2104: Trump says Putin will restore the Russian empire.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I believe Putin will continue to re-build the Russian Empire. He has zero respect for Obama or the U.S.!
10:03 PM - 21 Mar 2014
1,181 1,181 Retweets 892 892 likes
April 17, 2014: Trump praises Putin and trashes President Obama.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
America is at a great disadvantage. Putin is ex-KGB, Obama is a community organizer. Unfair.
4:44 PM - 17 Apr 2014
557 557 Retweets 585 585 likes

July 31, 2015: Trump says he'd "get along very well with Vladimir Putin."

"I just think so," Trump told reporters in Scotland. "People say, 'What do you mean?' I think I would get along well with him,"

"He hates Obama, Obama hates him. We have unbelievably bad relationships. Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. She was the worst secretary of state in the history of our country. The world blew apart during “her reign” Now she wants to be president," Trump added.

Oct. 11, 2015: Trump says he and Putin bonded on same episode of "60 Minutes."

"I think the biggest thing we have is that we were on '60 Minutes' together and we had fantastic ratings. One of your best-rated shows in a long time," Trump said. "So that was good, right? So we were stablemates."

Trump says he and Putin "are very different," but that they would "get along very well."

"I think that I would probably get along with him very well. And I don't think you'd be having the kind of problems that you're having right now," Trump says.

Nov. 10, 2015: Trump insists again he and Putin became "stablemates" on "60 Minutes."

"I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes,' we were stablemates, and we did very well that night," Trump said.

(Never mind that Trump and Putin were in different countries — and interviewed at different times — for the same show. Trump stuck to the story during a GOP debate.)

Dec. 17, 2015: Putin and Trump heap praise on each other.

"He's a very lively man, talented without doubt," Putin told reporters in Moscow, referring to Trump as the "absolute leader in the presidential race."

"It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond," Trump said a few hours later. "I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect."

Dec. 18, 2015: Trump defends Putin against allegations the Russian leader has ordered the killings of journalists.

"He's running his country and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country," Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I think our country does plenty of killing also."

Feb. 17, 2016: Trump says he'd be "crazy" to disavow Putin's praise.

"I have no relationship with him other than he called me a genius. He said Donald Trump is a genius and he is going to be the leader of the party and he's going to be the leader of the world or something," Trump said, embellishing Putin's praise.

"These characters that I'm running against said, 'We want you to disavow that statement.' I said, 'What, he called me a genius, I'm going to disavow it? Are you crazy?' Can you believe it? How stupid are they?"

"And besides that, wouldn't it be good if we actually got along with countries? Wouldn't it actually be a positive thing? I think I'd have a good relationship with Putin. I mean, who knows," he continued.

April 28: Trump says maybe they'll get along.

"Maybe we will, maybe we won't," Trump says when asked by Bill O'Reilly about whether he and Putin would have a nice relationship.

"I'm saying that I'd possibly have a good relationship. He's been very nice to me," Trump said. "If we can make a great deal for our country and get along with Russia that would be a tremendous thing. I would love to try it."

June 17: Putin calls Trump "bright" at the Russian Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

July 25: Trump suggests the Russians are behind the WikiLeaks publication of 20,000 internal Democratic National Committee emails. The reason, according to Trump? Putin "likes" him.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails, which should never have been written (stupid), because Putin likes me
7:31 AM - 25 Jul 2016
10,046 10,046 Retweets 32,115 32,115 likes

July 27: Trump suddenly insists he and Putin have never met.

"I never met Putin, I don't know who Putin is," he said at a Florida news conference. "He said one nice thing about me. He said I'm a genius. I said 'Thank you very much' to the newspaper, and that was the end of it. I never met Putin."

July 28: Trump says he wouldn't be Putin's patsy.

"I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly, but there's nothing I can think of that I'd rather do than have Russia friendly, as opposed to the way they are right now, so that we can go and knock out ISIS with other people," Trump said at a news conference.

Trump, who was catching heat after urging Russia to "find" the missing emails from Hillary Clinton's private server, also refused to call on Putin to steer clear of the U.S. presidential election.

"I'm not going to tell Putin what to do," he said. "Why would I tell him what to do? Why do I have to get tough on Putin? I don't know anything other than that he doesn't respect our country."

Trump also said Putin would respect him more than Clinton.

"I don't think he has any respect for Clinton," he said. "I think he respects me. I think it would be great to get along with him."


CORKY SIEMASZKO EMAIL
CONTRIBUTORS ALEXEY EREMENKO



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-was-told-russia-was-blame-hacks-long-debate-n663686

Trump Told Russia To Blame for Hacks Long Before Debate
by ROBERT WINDREM and WILLIAM M. ARKIN
NEWS OCT 10 2016, 1:53 PM ET

Video -- Clinton: 'We Deserve Answers' on Russian Involvement 0:46
Play -- Trump: 'I Don't Know Putin' 2:12
Play -- U.S. Gov't Officially Blames Russian Gov't for Election Hacks 1:29


During Sunday's debate, Donald Trump once again said he doesn't know whether Russia is trying to hack the U.S. election, despite Friday's statement by the U.S. intelligence community pointing the finger at Putin -- and despite the fact that Trump was personally briefed on Russia's role in the hacks by U.S. officials.

A senior U.S. intelligence official assured NBC News that cybersecurity and the Russian government's attempts to interfere in the 2016 election have been briefed to, and discussed extensively with, both parties' candidates, surrogates and leadership, since mid-August. "To profess not to know at this point is willful misrepresentation," said the official. "The intelligence community has walked a very thin line in not taking sides, but both candidates have all the information they need to be crystal clear."

On Sunday, Trump disputed the idea there was any hack at all. "I notice, anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians are — [Hillary Clinton] doesn't know if it's the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking," Trump told moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC News. "But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia because they think they're trying to tarnish me with Russia. I know nothing about Russia."

It's the second time in two debates that Trump has declined to acknowledge that the hacks, mostly on Democratic targets, are real, much less that Russia is behind them.
. . . .

But weeks prior to the first debate, Trump had already been told privately by the intelligence community that the Russians were implicated.

On August 17, Trump got the first of the private briefings from U.S. intelligence officers to which he and Hillary Clinton are entitled as the major party presidential nominees.

As NBC News previously reported, classified materials prepared for the first briefing and examined by NBC News showed U.S. officials had drawn "direct links" between Vladimir Putin's government and the recent hacks and e-mail leaks.
. . . .



https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS725US725&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Trump+Kissing+Putin+Mural+Draws+Eyeballs+1%3A01

Trump Kissing Putin Mural Draws Eyeballs 1:01


http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/socialist-fraternal-kiss-leonid-brezhnev-erich-honecker-1979/

Rare Historical Photos
GO TO WEBSITE TO VIEW:

The Socialist Fraternal Kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, 1979

The socialist fraternal kiss became famous via Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev, who were photographed exercising the ritual. During the festivities of the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany in 1979, photographer Regis Bossu was able to take a photograph of the decisive moment wherein Leonid Brezhnev and President Erich Honecker were practicing a socialist fraternal kiss. After the photograph was taken, a lot of magazines used it immediately with one magazine captioning it as “The Kiss”.

“The Fraternal Kiss” is an example of how a single image can go beyond pure representation and elevate the documentary photography to another level. Depicting the emblematic act for the communists, Bossu’s photograph epitomizes the whole communist world. It symbolizes a mighty site of the Cold War: the Eastern Bloc, thus in a way the Cold War itself.

The socialist fraternal kiss consists of an embrace and a mutual kiss to cheeks or in rarer cases to the mouth. The origin of this ritual stems from the Eastern Orthodox Fraternal- or Easter Kiss, which through its entrenchment in the rites of the Orthodox Church carried a substantial strength of expression and so found use in daily life. Communist political leaders frequently kissed as a matter of formality in those days. So when East German President Erich Honecker went to embrace the Soviet leader, the kiss wasn’t exactly shocking—except for the enthusiasm both men showed for the lip lock.

The photograph of the Kiss spread around the world, with the Paris Match magazine featuring it in a dramatic two-page spread. And when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the Soviet artist Dmitri Vrubel decided to paint the iconic image on the east side of the Berlin Wall, along with paintings from other artists who descended upon the city in the heady days following the fall of the Wall. The caption that runs beneath Vrubel’s painting says: “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love”.

Some Kremlinologists studying the USSR paid close attention to whether the fraternal embrace was exchanged between Communist leaders. The omission of the customary embrace is taken to indicate a lower level of relations between the two countries. For example, after the Sino-Soviet split, the Chinese refused to embrace their Soviet counterparts or to address them as “comrade”. Even with the normalization of relations in 1989, the Chinese continued to omit the fraternal embrace when greeting Soviet leaders, even as they exchanged the fraternal embrace with leaders from other Communist countries. This was done to emphasize that Sino-Soviet relations were not returning to the level that they were in the 1950s, prior to the split; Chinese protocol specifically insisted on “handshake, no embrace”.

Interesting facts:

Leonid Brezhnev applied often the Socialist Fraternal Kiss, so one time Brezhnev was commenting about a foreign leader: “As a politician, rubbish… but what a good kisser! It’s a joke!”.

In March 2009, the graffiti painting, along with others, was erased from the wall to allow the original artists to repaint them with more durable paints. Vrubel was commissioned to repaint the piece.
Photographer Bossu and Vrubel met in 2009 and were photographed together on 16 June with reproductions of their works.
(Photo credit: AP Photo / Helmuth Lohmann / Corbis).