Is Vlad dissing the Donald? It sure looks like it.

A few days ago, Russia’s prime-time “60 Minutes” program congratulated Melania Trump on her husband’s electoral victory by displaying on air a handful of nude photographs of the future first lady that had originally appeared in GQ Magazine in 2000.

President-elect Trump may or may not have found the photographs to be offensive, but he was likely miffed by their appearance in Putin’s propaganda media. Make no mistake, it was Putin, and not the program’s obnoxious hosts Yevgeny Popov and Olga Skabeeva, who decided to show the pics. That both were visibly amused only underlined the degree to which the photos were meant to embarrass, not to celebrate.

It gets worse. Not only did Putin show the photos, but he did so before formally congratulating Trump on his victory, while also denying the veracity of the Washington Post’s report that he had spoken with Trump by telephone.

None of this is serendipitous. Putin is obviously sending some kind of message. But what and to whom? Several possibilities come to mind.

It may be that Putin is intimating that he possesses embarrassing “kompromat” on him. Rumors........

© The Hill