Putin's First Tweet Congratulated Obama on Election

Ah 2012… a year which witnessed the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Curiosity Rover landing on Mars, and my appendix bursting in the British Ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv.

But the year was also noteworthy for the launch of the English language Twitter account of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Halcyon days, really. Especially for Obama’s “reset” policy with Russia.

Yes, after Twitter launched its ‘discover your first tweet’ function yesterday, it has come to light that Vladimir Putin’s first tweet was to President Obama himself, congratulating him on his re-election. 

Putin wrote: 

The link goes to a press release from the Russian President’s website which reads: “Mr Putin particularly stressed the results obtained in developing Russian-US relations over these last years, and expressed his hopes for continued constructive work together on the bilateral agenda and in resolving pressing international and regional issues, noting the key importance that cooperation between countries such as Russia and the USA has for ensuring the world’s stable and secure development.”

As that great sage Morpheus noted in The Matrix: “Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony“.