Bronze bust of Vladimir Putin made as gift for Arnold Schwarzenegger

**vector7** · October 28th, 2009, 14:36

Do we have a closet Kommrade in Kalifornia?
His neo-socialist policies might be a better fit posted in Putin's Spies in America.

From The Times
October 28, 2009
Bronze bust of Vladimir Putin made as gift for Arnold Schwarzenegger

The bust is currently being made in Mr Putin's home city of Saint Petersburg
Photo: AFP/GETTY

A Russian sculptor is casting a bronze bust of Vladimir Putin as a gift for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation of Russia commissioned the cast of the Prime Minister after it learnt that the former bodybuilder and Governor of California collected sculptures.

Mr Schwarzenegger has busts of Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev in his collection.

**vector7** · October 28th, 2009, 14:45

Putin to be cast in bronze for Schwarzenegger

By Anna Smolchenko (AFP) – 23 hours ago

MOSCOW — A bust of Russia's muscle-flexing strongman Vladimir Putin is being created as a gift for ex-Hollywood bodybuilder and California's current governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, its sculptor said Tuesday.

The bust is currently being made in Putin's home city of Saint Petersburg on an order of Russia's Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation and will be delivered to the movie star turned politician in March.

"Putin is such a complex personality. He's left no one indifferent," Alexander Chernoshchyokov, a Saint Petersburg-based sculptor who has been working on the Putin bust since June, told AFP.

In 1991 the Russian artist made a sculpture of Schwarzenegger and Vladimir Dubinin, the president of the bodybuilding federation, personally delivered the gift.

The two Russian men soon learned the Hollywood action hero collected sculptures, Dubinin said.

His collection however lacked figures of Communist-era leaders, so a few years later Chernoshchyokov made the sculptures of Stalin and Lenin.

"Then we brought him the busts of Gorbachev and Yeltsin," said Dubinin, referring to the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the late Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

A sculpture of Putin, a former president and current prime minister, was the next logical step, he added.

Capturing Putin's features proved difficult however. "He's changing every day. His features even change during the day," said Dubinin.
The sculptor said he took up the work even though he did not agree with everything Putin does. "A true member of the intelligentsia is always in opposition to power," said Chernoshchyokov.

He said he had recently sent a message to Putin asking him to come to Saint Petersburg and sign the bust for Schwarzenegger. But he has not received a reply so far.

The bust has already been made in plasticine and would be cast in bronze soon, said the artist, adding he wanted to make a second bust for the premier himself.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was not aware of the bust but said Putin would not approve because he has always been against attempts to turn his popularity into a personality cult.

"Nothing has changed," Peskov said.

A passionate judo player, Putin is known for his own muscle-bound physique and in recent years has allowed himself to be photographed showing off his naked torso during holiday expeditions in the Russian wilderness.

During Putin's 2000-2008 presidency, many entrepreneurial Russians sought to cash in on the public's affection for Putin, depicting him on T-shirts, badges, vodka bottles and even rugs.

A full-size plaster sculpture of the former president was erected in Pskov in northwest Russia in 2004 but survived only 24 hours before being taken down and hauled away by police.

Following the ascension to power of Putin's protege Dmitry Medvedev, entrepreneurs have now switched to the Medvedev paraphernalia.
Dubinin, too, said he started thinking about a sculpture of the current Kremlin chief.

"I am already preparing" for Medvedev's bust, said Dubinin, noting he started collecting his pictures.

"But that will be when he ceases to be the president," Dubinin added.
That means Schwarzenegger's collection may get the Medvedev sculpture in less than three years.

Putin, who famously declared earlier this year that he and Medvedev were "of the same blood", hinted earlier this year he might be back in the Kremlin in 2012.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

**Malsua** · October 29th, 2009, 20:02

What's with those damn soviets and their need to be immortalized in statues and such?

Drive around Eastern europe and it's all statues of Lenin, Stalin everywhere.

**vector7** · June 21st, 2010, 22:31

The Russian Varyag aircraft carrier killer just arrived in San Fransisco for it's sailors to get acquainted with the City and now...

Russian President Medvedev to visit Northern Calif

Sunday, June 20, 2010

(06-20) 17:37 PDT Sacramento, Calif. (AP) --

Dmitry Medvedev. Photo: EPA

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (dih-MEE'-tree med-VYEH'-dyev) during the foreign leader's visit to the United States this week.

Medvedev plans to be in California Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama.

Schwarzenegger's office said Sunday the governor will meet with the Russian leader in San Francisco.

Medvedev also plans to tour Silicon Valley, where he will talk to entrepreneurs about launching Russia's version of the high-tech mecca outside of Moscow.

He is also expected to speak at Stanford University on Wednesday afternoon.

**vector7** · June 28th, 2010, 21:11

This is double posted in the thread: Obama upens up Silicon Valley to Russia

What does the California Bear and Russia have in common?

Medvedev seeks US help to steer Russia into a new economic age

27 June 2010 - Issue : 891

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (C) and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) tour Cisco Systems Corporate Headquarters in San Jose, California, US, 23 June. Schwarzenegger accompanied Medvedev to Cisco Systems Inc, the manufacturer of computer-networking equipment, and then to a visit at electronics maker Apple Inc. During a separate meeting with Medvedev, Schwarzenegger signed an agreement with Russia’s Renova Group of Companies, which has pledged to provide financial support to keep the landmark Fort Ross open |ANA/EPA/JUSTIN SHORT/OFFICE OF GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER/HANDOUT

Amid their renewed sense of cooperation, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama are determined to capitalize in the economic sphere. Following their meeting in the White House, Obama on 24 June signaled his strong commitment to working for Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization, part of a deepening economic agenda for the US and Russian leaders. The WTO issue was an especially high priority for Medvedev, who joined Obama for a press conference after morning meetings and lunch at a Virginia hamburger restaurant.

Medvedev told reporters that things must be “substantially changed” in the Russian business climate. Since taking office he has pushed for reforms to expand the role of civil society and protect human rights. The leaders agreed that the unresolved WTO entry issues would be ironed out by September, Medvedev said. “Russia belongs in the World Trade Organization. It’s good for Russia, good for America and good for the world economy,” Obama said. As a symbol of Russia’s “seriousness” about joining, Obama said Russia had agreed to allow US poultry imports into the country.

Russia and the US are intent on building economic ties on the strong record of cooperation on security issues that have marked Obama’s first year and a half in office: agreement on the New START Treaty on nuclear disarmament and agreement on new sets of sanctions against both North Korea and Iran.

“Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the relationship must be about more than security and arms control,” Obama said, adding that mutual “prosperity” was the next goal. Obama conceded that there were still areas of disagreement - such as that over Georgia, where the US insists Russia withdraw from its occupation of the two Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Obama has stepped back from Bush’s plans to put a system of missile defense in place across Eastern Europe, a project Medvedev strongly opposed. But Obama noted his efforts to build an alternative system for which he hopes to get Russia’s support.

The US wants “to work with Russia to be a key player and beneficiary in this global architecture,” Interfax quoted Obama as saying. Obama and Medvedev agreed to work for ratification of the New Start treaty “as soon as possible,” Obama said. And they discussed the crises in Kyrgyzstan, the Middle East, North Korea and Iran.

On the growing conflict in Central Asia, Medvedev expressed concern that without a “full fledged government” that can grapple with the ethnic discord, Kyrgyzstan will “degrade and break up into parts.” “All of us share concern that under these circumstances, radical elements might rise to power,” the Russian leader said.

Russia, the US and the international community have been coordinating their humanitarian efforts, and the Russian Federation was not planning to deploy peacekeepers, Medvedev said. Obama noted that any actions to protect civilians in the central Asian country would “not be done under the flag of any individual country.”

By the time he got to the White House, Medvedev spent a day in California securing support in the high-tech community for building a Russian version of the Silicon Valley, hoping to steer Russia into a new economic age. He even tried his hand at tweeting for the first time.

But he also brought a gift on 23 June for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - a commitment by a Russian private company to help California preserve a historic Russian settlement from the 19th century.

Along the way, the Russian leader stopped at the headquarters of the micro-blogging internet site Twitter, where he sent his first message, called a tweet, to the @KremlRussia account, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. “Hello everyone. I am now on Twitter. This is my first message,” he wrote in Russian with the help of Twitter head Evan Williams. “The decision of major American companies to come to Russia and invest shows that we can agree on more than just missiles,”

Medvedev later wrote on Twitter. “Russia and the US are working to improve global security, but the goal of this visit is to improve our economic relations.”

Schwarzenegger accompanied Medvedev to Cisco Systems Inc, the manufacturer of computer-networking equipment, and then to a visit at electronics maker Apple Inc with its chief executive officer Steve Jobs.

During a separate meeting with Medvedev, Schwarzenegger signed an agreement with Russia’s Renova Group of Companies, which has pledged to provide financial support to keep the landmark Fort Ross open, a statement from the governor’s office said.

Renova head Viktor Vekselberg was reportedly on hand for the signing. Vekselberg is Medvedev’s point-man to oversee the creation of a Russian high-tech centre in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo.

Fort Ross was an agricultural colony established in 1812 about 100 kilometers north of San Francisco under a charter from a tsarist government. It supported trade and the dispatch of Russian immigrants to the West Coast and Alaska for decades during the Gold Rush. One of California’s oldest state parks, it is now open only three days a week after harsh state cutbacks.

Schwarzenegger said Russian support for the park highlighted “the diverse history of California and the importance of Russian culture to our state.”

Medvedev took with him a pledge from Schwarzenegger to put together a technology trade mission to Moscow to help with the Skolkovo project. Russia has been largely dependent on technology imports in recent years as its own industry remains heavily focused on energy and metals since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. “I would like that, as a result of this trip, we start full-fledged relations that will lead to establishing powerful cooperation,” Medvedev said.

Google Inc chief executive Eric Schmidt had already agreed to join the Skolkovo board before the Medvedev visit, Bloomberg reported. Vekselberg said Cisco would also join the Skolkovo efforts, according to the financial news agency.

The Obama administration was enthusiastic about Medvedev’s technology initiative and sees it as the palpable outcome of a year of hard work to reset a relationship that had gone adrift during the Bush administration.

Obama saw Medvedev’s high-tech push as “something that will unleash growth for Russia” and increase opportunity for US exports and jobs.

**vector7** · October 19th, 2010, 23:11

Arnold Schwarzenegger 'offered post of Moscow mayor' during trip to Russia

Californian governor gets job offer from Russian president after first visit to country in two decades
Luke Harding in Moscow

guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 October 2010 15.01 BST
Article history

Arnold Schwarzenggger on the Moscow subway with the US and Austrian ambassadors to Russia. Photograph: Arnold Schwarzenggger His last visit to Moscow was in 1988, when he starred as a Soviet cop with the less than imaginative name of Ivan. But two decades later Arnold Schwarzenegger was back in Russia's capital today – only to be offered a job as the city's mayor.

Half-asleep commuters were surprised when the governor of California got into their packed metro carriage, an unthinkable act for Kremlin politicians who invariably travel to work in a big shiny Mercedes.

Schwarzenegger posted a snap of his journey on Twitter, remarking on Muscovites' apparent love of public transport. (His grinning companions are the US and Austrian ambassadors; several of his co-passengers are taking photos of the ex-Hollywood star; others, however clearly have no idea who he is. Or possibly don't care.)

He later met Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president and fellow Twitter enthusiast. Medvedev greeted him after his arrival yesterday with the friendly tweet: "Welcome to Russia." He later tweeted a picture of the two of them spending some quality time lifting weights.

Medvedev jokingly offered Schwarzenegger the job of Moscow's new mayor — after he sacked the last one Yuri Luzhkov, last month, citing lack of trust. "If you were a Russian citizen you could come and work for us," Medvedev told Schwarzenegger.

Certainly Schwarzenegger would be more popular than any of the four lacklustre Kremlin and Moscow city officials who have been shortlisted to replace Luzhkov.

And he might need employment: his current gubernatorial term expires in January.

For his part, Schwarzenegger hailed Medvedev as "one of those great visionaries". He said he was thrilled to be back in Moscow, which he visited while starring as a Soviet cop in the 1988 movie Red Heat.
"I never thought at that point that I would be back as governor," he said.

The Californian governor is leading a delegation of Silicon Valley business leaders and investors, repaying a visit Medvedev made to Silicon Valley in June, when the Russian president was one of the first people to lay his hands on a new iPad.

Medvedev is seeking foreign partners for his pet modernisation project, Skolkovo, a new hi-tech development 30 miles outside of Moscow that is supposed to be Russia's answer to Silicon Valley.

Observers, however, are sceptical that the project will offer any serious competition to the US one, given Russia's high levels of corruption and strangling bureaucracy.

**vector7** · October 19th, 2010, 23:14

Arnold Schwarzenegger will get Russian citizenship?

October 11 the famous "Terminator", the governor of the Golden State, Arnold Schwarzenegger met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a business trip to Moscow with a delegation of American businessmen.

Medvedev said that he has a vacancy for the governor, who in January is going to resign, hinting at the seat of Moscow Mayor. But, lamented that the only obstacle is the lack of Russian citizenship in the American guest.

Clearly, this was a joke, but in every joke, there is only truth.

Whether this will happen?

**vector7** · October 19th, 2010, 23:16

Medvedev says Schwarzenegger could be Moscow mayor

Topic: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s visit to Russia

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

17:17 11/10/2010
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Klementiev
Related News

Multimedia

Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Medvedev is one of those great visionaries"

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday said he could offer California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the post of Moscow's mayor if he had Russian citizenship.

Schwarzenegger arrived in Moscow at the head of a delegation of high-tech executives and venture businessmen on Sunday. Medvedev and Schwarzenegger met on Monday in the Russian leader's Moscow Region residence in Gorki before setting off for Russia's high-tech research hub of Skolkovo outside the capital.

"We have many different events here. You arrived at the moment when Moscow has no mayor," the Russian president told the American guest.

Recalling that Schwarzenegger is leaving the post of California governor in January, Medvedev said smiling: "If you were a Russian citizen, you could work for us."

Medvedev fired long-serving Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov in late September, saying he had lost his trust. The decision came after state TV had accused Luzhkov of negligence, callousness and corruption.

Commentators say Medvedev's sacking of Luzhkov, one of the most powerful politicians in Russia, may boost his authority ahead of the 2012 presidential elections.

GORKI, October 11 (RIA Novosti)