Brother, Can You Spare a Ruble?

The Obama fundraising juggernaut apparently has caused John McCain's campaign to conduct extraordinary outreach to unlikely donors, even to Russia's ambassador to the United Nations.

The Russians released a copy of a Sept. 29 solicitation addressed to Vitaly I. Churkin, urging him to contribute as much as $5,000 to "stop the Obama Democrats from seizing control of the entire federal government."

"Please know this -- we will not concede any region to the Democrats," the letter stated. That might have resonated with Churkin, who doubtless started thinking about South Ossetia, Chechnya and such.

But when McCain then criticized Obama for recklessly supporting an "unconditional timeline" for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a position that Churkin supports, you could see the checkbook going back into his pocket. And McCain's warnings about Obama's "big-government solution to health care" or increasing the size of the federal government or big tax increases probably left the Russian only scratching his head.

But Churkin, like everyone else, might have been sympathetic to McCain's complaint about the "vicious attacks" from "the Democrats and their liberal special interest allies." Clearly something that would not be permitted in Russia.

The letter doesn't mention U.S. policy toward Russia, although McCain condemned Russia's recent invasion of neighboring Georgia, and his call for sanctions has infuriated leaders in Moscow, our colleague Colum Lynch writes in The Post's political blog The Trail.

Russia's U.N. mission pretended to take the errant solicitation seriously, perhaps to slap McCain, and issued an official statement saying: "We have received a letter from Senator John McCain with a request for a financial donation to his presidential election campaign. In this respect we have to reiterate that neither Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations, nor the Russian government or its officials finance political activities in foreign countries."

McCain couldn't accept a donation anyway, since it's illegal to take contributions from a foreign government.

"It was just a mistake. We don't solicit folks who can't give," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

Diplomats from several other nations said they do not believe that they had received any financial appeals from either Obama or McCain. "He must have been really desperate," said one European official, when informed of McCain's Russian appeal. Another joked: "We just give our money directly to Obama."

In the letter, McCain told Churkin, "I am reaching out to you to ask you to sign and return the enclosed 2008 Pledge of Support along with a campaign contribution of $35, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $2,500 or even $5,000 to the McCain-Palin Victory 2008."

Ah, comrade, have you looked at the price of crude lately?