Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked. “Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?” Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

When even Vladamir Putin knows Bush is a cautionary tale, all I can say is, what the hell is wrong with the people in this country who think he's still doing a "heckuva job"?