What Putin's presidential potty mouth is all about

 It was a classic "Putin moment." A huge hall filled with almost a thousand journalists, his formal "year-ender" December 17 news conference, broadcast live on all the major Russian TV networks and websites. A question about Turkey, and why it shot down a Russian warplane in November. President Putin was still furious. With a sneer and a snort, he let loose a volley of trash-talk. "If anyone in the Turkish leadership decided to lick the Americans in a certain place -- I don't know if they acted correctly or not -- I don't know whether the Americans need that." Laughs, and even applause from some of the Russian reporters. Foreign journalists looked stunned. What Putin left out was the real ending of that Russian expression: "lick someone's a*s." But every Russian in the room knew what he meant. Trump and Putin's bromance Trump and Putin's bromance 06:58 Vladimir Putin has a presidential potty mouth that he uses to great effect. The public first heard it in September 1999, when Putin was an unknown prime minister. Russia was hit with several deadly terrorist bombings of apartment buildings. Vowing revenge, Putin didn't hold back: "We're going to pursue the terrorists everywhere," he said. "That means, you'll excuse me, we'll catch them in the toilet, we'll wipe them out in the sh*t house, finally."