US News

Putin arm-wrestled US congressman

Tough-guy Vladimir Putin demonstrated his arm-wrestling prowess in a drunken bout at a Washington bar a decade ago — and easily beat a Republican congressman.

Dana Rohrbacher, a former Ronald Reagan speechwriter, recalled in a radio interview Friday how he lost the mini-bout.

Rohrbacher, who has represented a Southern California district since 1989, said he met “a group of young political leaders” visiting from Russia in the early 1993s.

Among them was Putin, then the little-known deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.

Putin and two other Russians were introduced to touch football by Rohbacher and other players, including Lewis “Scooter” Libby, later chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

“A bunch of my right-wing friends were there,” Rohrbacher told KPCC-FM. “We all ended up going to the Irish Times pub afterwards. And we were having a little bit too much to drink I guess.”

“But anyway we started arguing about who won the Cold War, et. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had too much to drink in a pub,” he said.

“So we got down to these arm-wrestling matches and I ended up being paired with Putin,” said Rohbacher, who is six years older.

“And he’s just a little guy but boy I tell you, he put me down in a milli-second. His muscles are just unbelievable.”

Rohrbacher said the lesson he learned was: “He’s a tough guy, and he’s supposed to be a tough guy. That’s what the Russian people want. But that’s not a reason we shouldn’t work with him.”