by Rigorous Intuition » Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:21 pm
<!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5182655,00.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>MOSCOW: After a week of frenzied speculation across Russia, President Vladimir Putin has finally explained that he had kissed a young boy on the stomach in the Kremlin because he wanted to "stroke him like a kitten".<br><br>But his explanation during a live webcast held by the BBC anda popular Russian browser left many viewers even more bemused.<br><br>The normally dour former KGB officer insisted that it was a spontaneous decision to approach the five-year-old, who was in a group of tourists, to lift his shirt and kiss his stomach.<br><br>"People came up and I began talking to them, among them thislittle boy. He seemed to mevery independent, sure of himself and at the same time defenceless, so to speak, an innocent boy and a very nice little boy," Mr Putin said.<br><br>"I tell you honestly, I just wanted to stroke him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. There is nothing behind it."<br><br>Russians occasionally kiss babies on the stomach, but almost never five-year-old boys. <br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19721151-29677,00.html">www.theaustralian.news.com.au/</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>