Russian President Vladimir Putin joked Thursday that American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had “fallen in with the wrong company” since being awarded Russia’s “Order of Friendship” in 2013.
Tillerson, who served as chief executive of ExxonMobil for ten years before accepting the job leading Trump’s State Department, had extensive business experience in Russia over the past three decades.
He was given the award, according to the Kremlin, for his “big contribution to developing cooperation in the energy sector.” Specifically, he received it after Exxon expanded a deal with the majority Russian-government-owned energy company Rosneft.
On Thursday, according to a translation from Reuters, Putin joked to a U.S. citizen at an economic forum that he regretted the award.
“We awarded your compatriot Mr. Tillerson the Order of Friendship, but he seems to have fallen in with the wrong company and to be steering in the other direction,” he said, adding: “I hope that the wind of cooperation, friendship and reciprocity will eventually put him on the right path.”
Trump: Putin is real smart. Tillerson is now going to be a double agent.
What’s kabuki in Russian?
There’s an old saying in politics–I’ve seen it attributed to various pols: “You can buy people or scare people to get support. I prefer to scare people, because some people won’t stay bought”
But when Putin buys you, you should stay scared.
This means you Rex. And Donald, too.
I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I read this.
It’s just too surreal to be true. And yet, it is.
How bizarro our world has become in the last few months…
So darned CUTE that Vlad is!!!
For the record I don’t think Putin should be destabilizing the world or us or anybody. But when he jerks Trump around like this I get VERY CONFLICTED because I kind of love it. I want to see Putin force Trump to bark like a dog and stuff. It’s not good for the country, I know. Conflicted.
