Vladimir Putin: Cleaning Up Corruption Equals "Meddling"

Master meddler =cough= Crimea =cough= Ukraine =cough= and Don President of the world's biggest kleptocracy Vladimir "Vlad The Invader" Putin weighed in on yesterday's bust of FIFA (the world soccer organization) officials accused of (among other things) racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering: 

MOSCOW, May 28 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Thursday of meddling outside its jurisdiction in the arrest of top officials from soccer's world governing body, FIFA.

Putin said the arrests in Switzerland on Wednesday were an "obvious attempt" to prevent FIFA head Sepp Blatter's re-election this week but that the 79-year-old had Russia's backing.

The world's most popular sport was plunged into turmoil this week when seven senior soccer officials were arrested on U.S. corruption charges to face extradition from Switzerland.

Putin, it may be remembered is no stranger to racketeering, as it is the grease that lubricates the kleptocratic Russian economy;  Putin's Russia is ranked 136th out of 175 nations in terms of government corruption.   Vlad's concern extends to the fact that the corruption investigation will likely involve the awarding of the 2018 soccer World Cup venue to Russia. 

Now that he's drawn world attention to his support of official wrongdoing and his interest in seeing the investigation thwarted, we eagerly await the unraveling of this trail of corruption and see if it leads into the Kremlin.