Vladimir Putin, dancing queen?

Posted By Joshua Keating Friday, February 6, 2009 - 1:35 PM Share

Now that he's a wine-sipping watercolorist, you didn't think he would sit around listening to Shostakovich all day, did you? The Moscow Times has the scoop on Vladimir's latest antics:

Putin took a few hours off from dealing with the financial crisis late last month to dance to hits like "Money, Money, Money" performed by the ABBA tribute band Björn Again in a private concert for the prime minister and a group of friends, organizers of the show told The Moscow Times.
"Putin and his colleague friends were all dancing and getting involved with the choreography," Björn Again founder and creator Rod Stephen said in a telephone interview from London.
Putin and the others waved their hands in the air during a rousing rendition of the Swedish group's "Super Trouper" and pointed their fingers during "Mama Mia," Stephen said.
The Jan. 22 show took place in a concert hall at a Kremlin residence near Valdai Lake, in the northwestern Novgorod region, said Stephen, whose band charged ?20,000 ($29,000) for the performance.
A source involved in the concert said it was organized by the Kremlin for Putin but that no state funds were used in arranging the show.
"ABBA is popular, and [Putin] likes them," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

I can understand why the source was worried. We may have just discovered the one area where the Deep Purple- and Pink Floyd-loving Dmitry Medvedev is more of a badass than his prime minister.

Update: It just occurred to me that if known ABBA-lover John McCain had been elected, the two leaders could have used this common interest to move past their differences and usher in a new era of U.S.-Russia cooperation. Oh well.

EXPLORE:CULTURE, FUN STUFF, RUSSIA

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KMCKERNA

9:12 PM ET

February 7, 2009

Regarding Abba, Dancing Queen

Prime Minister Putin has well good taste in Music...
Ma Ma Mia and Dancing Queen hit the charts here in the United States.
Now if the story was true... why shall one deny the whole story. Because it leaked out to the press.
We've been having fun with the story here in the United States... He let loose for the night. Bare chest and all
in other photos of him fishing showing it all.
And he does have a reputation with his fingers pointing them in the photos at serious intense meetings.It is no wonder the fingers were in the air.
If...the story is true, Does he like to Dance. I have a gut feeling he likes to do the fox trot, along with the Disco.
All the power to him....
Fishing line and all.
Chow......
Miss Kelley Mckernan

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