Putin’s Secrecy Dwarfs Trump’s Air Force One Ruse

“President Trump’s Air Force One subterfuge was a stunning episode of official deception,” the New York Times reports.

“But it pales in comparison to the secrecy surrounding President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whose activity is shrouded in so much mystery that journalists have tried to track it by assessing the wilting of his office plants.”

“That is the method some reporters resorted to this year as they worked to ascertain whether the Russian leader’s televised meetings took place when the Kremlin said they did. The apparent reversal of the leaf decay seen in Mr. Putin’s plants suggested that the meetings actually took place in a different order and on different days.”