Russian Bear Cub

Once, the fear of the Russians coming was at the heart of the Cold War scenario that had generations of West German soldiers digging themselves in along the German-German border. Not that they could have done much to stop the Russians had they ever come. The Russians, in the end, chose to stay put -- with the exception of a few rich jet-setters, the Russian mafia and ethnic Germans.

But as world history never stands still and allegedly never repeats itself, a Russian did come, after some time. The spectacle of this Russian was very different from what we had so long imagined. Clean-shaven and impeccably groomed, he turned up in a stylish suit and tie and shoes polished to a shine. Indeed, his whole bearing was so self-confident that our own politicians suddenly lost all cosmopolitan glamour. Did Vladimir Putin learn these tricks during his stint as a KGB officer in Dresden during the 1980s? To be sure, he did not adopt the kind of drill-sergeant delivery cultivated in eastern bloc states.

He proved so skilled at twisting German journalists around his little finger even before his visit that those privileged enough to be granted an audience returned to their newsrooms with misty eyes. Yet when this same Russian modestly, but resolutely, took to the rostrum to address the members of the German parliament on Tuesday, he surpassed even his own record in presidential rhetoric.

No matter how controversial the contents, the speech was charming and clever -- not least because it was delivered in polished German by a man whose predecessors were not exactly famed for an engaging tone. By modulating his voice with suavity, Putin made clear that this was no apparatchik speaking, but rather a gentle and hence vulnerable bear -- a Russian bear skilled at using subtlety and humor to solicit a rather more charitable perception of his by no means insignificant homeland.

And because his audience was only too willing to be taken in by this lovable bear cub, Putin was able to skirt what black holes there are in his record to date such as the war in Chechnya, the Kursk disaster and organized crime. What he served up was nothing less than the "strong and vital heart of Russia" -- a liberating speech that has nothing to fear from comparisons with President George W. Bush's highly acclaimed address to the U.S. Congress. Who would have thought the Russians would fall upon us like this?