worship the glitch

Shocked Putin greeted with boos and jeers at event

It was not the kind of reception that Vladimir Putin is used to. As the Russian Prime Minister stepped into the ring at Moscow’s Olympic Stadium to congratulate Fedor Emelianenko, the winner of a martial arts clash on Sunday evening, boos and whistles rang out in the arena.

A moment of shock flickered across his face as he registered what was happening, before he regained his composure and carried on as normal. Nobody can remember anything like it happening before, and one blogger called it “the end of an era”. The frosty reception from thousands of ordinary Russians will raise further alarm that discontent with Russia’s ruling elite and Mr Putin himself is growing, ahead of elections in a fortnight’s time.

Mr Putin’s supporters rushed to offer explanations for the hostile reception. Some said it was meant for the defeated American fighter Jeff Monson, who was leaving the arena just as Mr Putin appeared on the scene.

Others, less plausibly, claimed that the whistling was due to the fact that many of the crowd needed to go to the toilet. But in a telling sign, state-controlled television, which showed the fight and Mr Putin’s speech live, edited out the whistling and played a more neutral crowd soundtrack during repeats of the speech.