From left, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Paul the Oracle Octopus and his World Cup trophy, and President Dmitry Medvedev are shown in this combo image.By AGENCIES
Published: Jul 16, 2010 21:28
MOSCOW/MADRID: One of Russia’s most popular newspapers said on Friday it had managed to get Paul, the oracle German octopus which accurately predicted the World Cup results, to forecast who will be Russia’s next president.
But shhhhhh...Komsomolskaya Pravda said the results of Paul’s prediction for the 2012 presidential election have been sealed until election year.
The paper said one of its reporters approached Paul, who lives at the Sea Life attraction in the German city of Oberhausen and put two sheets of paper with the names of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev in front of the soothsaying invertebrate, which pointed to one of the names with a tentacle.
Since Medvedev replaced Putin as president in 2008, with the latter taking over the Cabinet, it has been unclear who is the number one decision-maker in a country with a tradition of strong, individual rulers. A recent poll conducted by Russia’s Levada-Center shows that 76 percent of respondents believe Putin is the country’s most influential person, while 67 percent see Medvedev as top leader.
Both politicians at some point said they were considering running for president in 2012. In April Medvedev said they would decide together who is going to run. Putin said in June they would talk about it closer to the election date.
Paul the octopus became famous for accurately predicting the outcome of Germany’s World Cup campaign and the World Cup final between Spain and The Netherlands. His Russian presidential pick has been conducted in a fashion rather different to his World Cup prognostications, where he predicted football matches by picking food from two different transparent containers lowered into his tank, each adorned with the flag of one of the matches’ competitors. The paper also features a short “interview” with Paul.
Meanwhile, Madrid’s main aquarium is rolling out the red carpet to get Paul, the “psychic” octopus who uncannily forecast Spain’s World Cup win, to grace the champion country with a visit.
The Zoo Aquarium sent a request to the aquarium in Oberhausen in Germany this week to host the octopus, whose prescient picks during the tournament propelled him to international fame, a spokeswoman said. “We have not received a response,” she said.
Paul made correct predictions of the outcome of all seven of Germany’s matches as well as of Sunday’s final by choosing to eat a morsel of food from a box emblazoned with the flag of the winning team.
TV stations in Germany and Britain broadcast live images of his decision for the final.
A Spanish town in northwestern Galicia, which celebrates an annual Octopus Festival has already requested that the salty soothsayer be allowed to join them as a guest of honor. Whatever the decision, Paul has been rewarded with honorary citizenship of the town of O Carballino.
A Spanish wildlife defense group, ADDA, has also suggested that he be given a spot to live out the rest of his days in a marine sanctuary in Spain, rather than cooped up in an aquarium.
In octopus terms, Paul is already a pensioner, at the grand old age of two-and-a-half. Octopuses generally live three years at most.
The art of match predicting became a dangerous job for the clairvoyant cephalopod with bitter fans sending death-threat e-mails to his German aquarium, saying “we want Paul for the pan.”
At one point Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero jokingly suggested sending in a squad of octopus bodyguards.
