Putin his foot in it

Russian President Putin has met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and seen fit to express his sympathy for Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who faces charges of serial rape.

After a meeting between Israeli and Russian delegations, the following occurred (according to Kommersant):

After that, the press was ushered out, and the president apparently thought the microphones had been turned off. “Say hi to your president,” Putin said. “He turned out to be quite a powerful person! Raped ten women! We're all amazed. We all envy him"

If true, it rather puts the Bush/Blair's off-mike comments into perspective...

The article is a little surreal, given it comes with the title "Israel Refuses to Recognize Roman Abramovich", which sounds like something straight out of the Onion, but someone forwarded me this from a messageboard so it must be true.

(Hat tip:MR)