Whose is bigger: Putin's or Lukashenko's?

[Larry1]

Lukashenko says the catfish he caught is bigger than the pike Putin caught:

Alexander Lukashenko baits Vladimir Putin: 'My catfish is bigger than your pike'
After a bare-chested President Vladimir Putin boasted about pulling a 21kg pike out of the water in one of his trademark publicity stunts, his Belarusian counterpart claimed to have bettered that feat with a 57kg catfish.

Alexander Lukashenko, a wily ex state farm boss with a hulking frame, claimed he dragged three catfish weighing 57 (125 lb), 24 (53lb) and 7 kilograms (15lb) from Belarusian waters in a single fishing trip. Belarusian Vice Prime Minister Mikhail Rusyi reportedly backed up the improbable claim saying the whopper was the size of the president himself.

Mr Lukashenko made a vague attempt to couch the far-fetched stunt as evidence that wildlife is returning to Pripyat River, which flows from Belarus south into Ukraine and which passes through the exclusion zone left behind by the 1985 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. "There were no fish in Pripyat" recently, said Mr Lukashenko, widely known as the "last dictator in Europe". "But order has been brought in there. Now you dip your finger in and a fish bites."

In reality, however, few doubted that Mr Lukashenko was actually taking a none-too-subtle jibe at the Kremlin. Mr Putin last Friday released photographs of himself posing with a pike that he claimed weighed 21 kg (46lb). The publicity stunt belly flopped, however, and was met with derision online where bloggers quickly disputed the size of Putin's haul.

Comparing it with photographs of historically large fishing hauls, they claimed the Russian president was fibbing and that the pike weighed little more than 10 kgs. Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov ruled out the speculation. There are no pictures of Mr Lukashenko's alleged haul although bloggers in Moscow are awaiting their next installment of fish-based diplomacy. "Who's next?" wrote one, "Fidel Castro should at least pull out a massive squid." Another joked that the ageing ex-president of the former Soviet ally has pulled out a tuna weighing 286 kg.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10214407/Alexander-Lukashenko-baits-Vladimir-Putin-My-catfish-is-bigger-than-your-pike.html

My favorite quote from the article is Lukashenko's assertion about the river, "but order has been brought in there. Now you dip your finger in and a fish bites."

[GQBlues]

If I cared, I'm likely to believe Lukashenko.


The river Pripyat, post-Chernobyl, was likely left alone along with it's fish populations due to obvious precautions. As a result, the fish had decades in the river undisturbed, as this article & video suggested and showed.

http://ukrainetrek.com/blog/funny/giant-fishes-inhabiting-the-pripyat-river-in-chernobyl/

[mendeleyev]

I believe Lukashenko too but am amazed that he took an obvious swipe at Putin. Given that Belarus has been bailed out financially, and recently with Russian loans, the last thing he should be doing is biting the one hand left to feed him.

Maybe those loan payments are getting steep and he's feeling pressured. 

[mendeleyev]

Putin is getting old. Since when did the size of a FISH matter for anything?!

Caption:

Obamination: "Once she's been black she'll never go back."

Medvedev: "Большому кораблю - большое плавание." (A big ship needs deep waters.)

[mendeleyev]

For some reason the folks in Minsk are determined to outdo Putin on this one...

[viking]

Is this dude for real? He has to take his fish to work? Have a photo sitting in his "throne"?  Where is the photo of him actually catching this thing. Personally I think both he and Putin have bigger egos than dicks.

[mendeleyev]

Personally I think both he and Putin have bigger egos than dicks.

Agreed. 

[mendeleyev]

[viking]

Ok. Putin actually caught his. how about the other guy? Lukadickshenko?

[Larry1]

Ok. Putin actually caught his. how about the other guy? Lukadickshenko?

Careful there, Viking. Your wife will be going back to Belarus sometime.

[mendeleyev]

Ok. Putin actually caught his. how about the other guy?

All we see in the end where the fist is hooked and tired. A catch like that size wasn't reeled in during a space as short as the video. Perhaps there is a reason why we don't see the catch from start to finish.

[viking]

Careful there, Viking. Your wife will be going back to Belarus sometime.

She is there now. Taking care of her mom who is sick. Not very good health care in that country when you get old. When we are on skype, she is deathly afraid of me mentioning his name for fear of his KGB monitoring the conversation. Hope this is not the case here.

[Larry1]

She is there now. Taking care of her mom who is sick. Not very good health care in that country when you get old. When we are on skype, she is deathly afraid of me mentioning his name for fear of his KGB monitoring the conversation. Hope this is not the case here.

Several years ago I was dating a Belarusian girl, around the time of the 2010 election there, and she too was afraid of our saying his name on Skype because she was afraid of the conversation being listened in on.  Three years later how many would have guessed that skype conversations would be listened in on on this end.