NEW YORK TIMES: … [President Vladimir V. Putin’s] first high-level appointment as president was Igor R. Kholmanskikh, 42, a tank-factory worker from the Urals who is famous for one thing: offering to travel to Moscow with a gang of assembly-line workers to chase antigovernment protesters off the streets.
“If the militia, or the police, as it’s now called, can’t handle it, then me and the boys are ready to come out and defend stability,” Mr. Kholmanskikh said during a live television broadcast in December, bringing a broad, happy smile to Mr. Putin’s face. “Of course, within the boundaries of the law,” he added hastily.
The Kremlin seized on Mr. Kholmanskikh as a living rebuke to the throng of iPad-toting office workers who had materialized in Moscow, chanting, “Putin is a thief” and “Russia without Putin.” Mr. Putin was so grateful that hours after it became clear that he had won the presidential election in March, one of his first acts was to reach out to Mr. Kholmanskikh via a video link… (more)
