At no moment was this proclivity more evident than Monday when Rogozin learned the U.S. was going to sanction him personally along with six other Russian leaders. According to that announcement, the punitive economic measures will freeze his personal assets in any U.S. jurisdiction, and Americans are for now forbidden from doing business with Rogozin.
You could almost hear the chortles from Moscow.
Comrade @BarackObama, what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? Or U didn’t think about it?)http://t.co/16KUTJPXOl
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) March 17, 2014
I think some prankster prepared the draft of this Act of the US President)
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) March 17, 2014
Canadian PM Stephen Harper put me on the list http://t.co/RfRrDg8gLB… Looks like they’re also looking for my accounts and villas)) They wish
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) March 18, 2014
The chief executive of Russia’s largest oil company and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin is also scoffing at the sanctions.
Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft, called them “evidence of powerlessness,” according to Russian news agencies.
Sechin has not been sanctioned but is a likely candidate if the penalties are broadened.
Rogozin’s braggadocio is not an aberration. Both inside and outside cyber sphere, Rogozin has a reputation for theatrics. Born into a Moscow family in 1963, he was raised by a Soviet military scientist, his biography says. From there, he went on to amass a grab bag of degrees: journalism, economics, a PhD in philosophy.
He got into national politics as the leader of the political bloc Rodina — motherland — in 2003. But two years later, his party was banned from some Moscow elections over allegations that his campaign’s slogan, “Clean Moscow of Rubbish,” was racist, according to a report by Ria Novosti, one of Russia’s largest news agencies.
He rebounded to become Russia’s ambassador to NATO in 2008, where he frequently derided Ukraine’s attempt to join that military alliance. That year, he called Ukraine a “bankrupt scandalous regime.”
Three years later, he was named Russia’s deputy prime minister. This was when his budding love affair with Twitter exploded.
Here, he has chronicled many Russian adventures.
He has discovered that Russian tanks are large enough for meditation.
Our tanks are spacious and dispose to meditation pic.twitter.com/N26pKXOb
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) April 25, 2012
He has fired many large guns.
And here is our “Pecheneg” 7.62 pic.twitter.com/UOLCla4o — Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) March 18, 2012
Yesterday at TSNIITOCHMASH the weapons checkup tour began with the legendary Maxim gun. pic.twitter.com/k0A2PMsJ — Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) March 18, 2012
And he’s also developed an affinity with Steven Seagal.
Life С этим оружием бойцы нашей легендарной группы “А” ЦСН ФСБ России уже второй год выигрывают Чемпионат мира… pic.twitter.com/9oUaIT9FVD
— Dmitry Rogozin (@Rogozin) January 18, 2014
Стивен Сигал: СМИ Запада пора начать говорить правду о России: http://t.co/aJRkMFCqPD Стив, спасибо
Стивен Сигал: СМИ Запада пора начать говорить правду о России: http://t.co/aJRkMFCqPD Стив, спасибо
— Dmitry Rogozin (@Rogozin) March 5, 2014
The Washington Post tweeted Dmitry Rogozin for comment. He did not tweet us back.