Russia Wants Assange for Nobel Peace Prize

Russian officials inside the Kremlin today called for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to get the Nobel Peace Prize while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at the United States.

Putin is outraged that the U.S. is preaching to Russia about democracy.

When asked about cables which cast him as Russia's 'alpha-dog' ruler of a corrupt and undemocratic bureaucracy, Putin snapped: 'Do you think the American diplomatic service is a crystal clean source of information? Do you think so?'

He then went on to criticise the West over the arrest of Assange, who turned himself in to the authorities in Britain this week.

'If it is full democracy, then why have they hidden Mr Assange in prison? That's what, democracy?' Putin said.

'So, you know, as they say in the countryside, some people's cows can moo, but yours should keep quiet. So I would like to shoot the puck back at our American colleagues,' Putin said at a briefing with his French counterpart Francois Fillon.

The phrase is a colloquial term which is a Russian equivalent of 'the pot calling the kettle black'.

The leaked U.S. cables cast Putin as a ruler who allows a venal elite of corrupt officials and crooked spies to siphon off cash from the world's biggest energy producer.

Sadly, we are only seeing the beginning of turmoil from the WikiLeaks release of classified data. I suggest that things will worsen.