McCain: I'll Answer Putin's Op-Ed With Column in Russian Press

Vladimir Putin got to sound off against the US in a New York Times op-ep this week, so now a Russian news site is offering the same opportunity to John McCain. Joking about Putin's op-ed on CNN last week, McCain said, "I would love to have a commentary in Pravda." Foreign Policy asked Pravda for comment. "If John McCain wants to write something for us, he is welcome," says the English editor of the website Pravda.ru. "Mr. McCain has been an active anti-Russian politician for many years already. ... But we would be only pleased to publish a story penned by such a prominent politician as John McCain."

McCain says he really would like to write something for Pravda, and will get in touch. But Slate suggests that McCain should actually check out the news outlet he has agreed to write for. There are two Pravdas: Pravda the newspaper, a Soviet-era relic which McCain probably remembers from the Cold War; and Pravda.ru, a tabloid news site that features headlines like "Russian children get gay love books from the West," and "SOS signal from UFO sows panic in Siberia." So ... not quite Russia's answer to the New York Times after all. (More John McCain stories.)