The funniest (and saddest) thing about McCain's little rant is that he THOUGHT he was publishing it in the Soviet-era Pravda (which no longer exists). This is how outdated his thinking really is! The man needs a new watch!

McCain Misfires at Putin in Wrong Pravda - Bloomberg

In the article, McCain seems to be speaking to the long-gone audience of the original Pravda. After stating he is "more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today," he affirms: "A Russian citizen could not publish a testament like the one I just offered." The column read as though McCain was unaware of the existence of Russia's highly vocal liberal press, or indeed of the not-so-subtle difference between Putin's authoritarian regime and totalitarian Soviet Communism.

"The very fact of publication proves that everything McCain wrote is a lie," Gorshenin told Izvestia. "If the entire press were controlled from the Kremlin, how could a piece like that appear on a website everyone calls pro-Kremlin?"

If McCain hoped that his article would make a splash in Russia comparable to the one Putin's article made in the U.S., he must have been disappointed. Pravda.ru's traffic was no greater than average. The Russian president may be an incorrigible dictator, but his publicists appear to have a better understanding of modern-day America than McCain does of Russia.

Granted, it's easier for Putin: There's only one New York Times.