During the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, we got a really good idea how low Russia's standards are. One of the people who lit the cauldron was Irina Rodnina, a three-time gold medalist in pair skating during the Soviet era. She's now a member of the Russian parliament from Putin's United Russia party. Last year, Rodnina tweeted a picture of Obama that had been photoshopped to include a banana. it was so outrageous that even the American ambassador to Moscow complained about it. Well, yesterday Rodnina took to Twitter to claim that when that picture came across her Twitter feed, it was because she'd been hacked.
Don't make us laugh, Irina Konstantinovna (for those who don't know, it's common to formally address Russians by their given name and patronymic). Beyond the fact that you waited a year to pull the "I was hacked" card, you defended that tweet pretty loudly last year. Or did you forget that you said, "Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups." Not only that, but you claimed the uproar was an astroturfing campaign by one of your master's opponents.
Given that there is no independent press to speak of in Russia, Rudinova can probably lie and dissemble all she wants back home. But she's delusional if she thinks anyone will believe it here. From what I've read about her, she should know better--she lived in the States for several years.
(h/t to Talking Points Memo)