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In his 2006 annual address to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin, comparing Russia's defense spending as a share of GDP to that of France and Britain, mentioned the United States:

"Their defense budget in absolute figures is almost 25 times bigger than Russia's. This is what in defense is referred to as 'their home — their fortress'. And good on them, I say. Well done!

But this means that we also need to build our home and make it strong and well protected. We see, after all, what is going on in the world. The Comrade Wolf knows who to eat, as the saying goes. It knows who to eat and is not about to listen to anyone, it seems."

The last two highlighted phrases in Russian are "Товарищ Волк знает кого кушать. Кушает и никого не слушает." (Romanization: "Tovarish volk znaet kogo kushat'. Kushaet i nikogo ne slushaet."). The explanation follows. Putin used the verb "кушать", which is translated as "to eat", but is used for children. Only little children can "кушать". The word "товарищ" has many meanings, not only the Communist Party official conversion (which will be regarded as an invalid translation), but also "comrade", "friend" and "companion". It is very difficult to find the right translation, because in that phrase, all possible meanings are used. The phrase sounds like simple poetry (in rhyme) for little children. The wording makes it sound like a piece of a fairy-tale like «Little Red Riding Hood» by Charles Perrault which is widely known in Russia under the name «Красная Шапочка» («Krasnaya Shapochka»). Arguably every Soviet-era kid also knows the melody of the song "Нам не страшен серый волк" ("We are not afraid of Gray Wolf") from another fairy tale, «The Three Little Pigs». Use of the word "товарищ" ("comrade") in combination with "волк" ("wolf") in the context of the whole phrase makes it sound very relaxing and humorous for adult ears.

There is also a very popular Russian animated film "Nu, pogodi!" for children. The main hero in the film is Wolf, who hunts Hare (another character). Wolf acts like a hooligan or capricious child, and tries to catch Hare - but always fails. In pursuit, Wolf breaks things which belong to others. The whole film is quite similar to the American Tom and Jerry series. After every failure, he threatens Hare with what he would do to him, when he is eventually caught. The suggestion here is that Putin compared the US to the animated Wolf, and not with actual animal.

Yet another reference to Wolf that is widely and immediately recognized by the Russian general public, and arguably most suited to the context of Putin's phrase, would be Wolf from Ivan Krylov's fable, «Волк и Ягнёнок» («Wolf and Lamb»). The fable starts with a preamble "У сильного всегда бессильный виноват: Тому в Истории мы тьму примеров слышим" ("The one who is stronger always makes the weaker guilty: We hear a lot of examples of this from History"). It then proceeds to describe how the Lamb comes to drink water to the watering place. He then encounters the Wolf who is hungry. The Wolf wants to make an affair look legal. So he tries to find various reasons to assign a guilt to the Lamb. All these attempts fail. Finally the Lamb asks "Ах, я чем виноват?" ("Oh in which way I am guilty?") and the Wolf replies "Ты виноват лишь тем, что хочется мне кушать." ("Your guilt consists in this -- I want to eat you up!") The final words of the fable are these: "Сказал и в тёмный лес ягнёнка поволок." (" took the Lamb to the dark forest.")

The words "Кушает и никого не слушает" ("He eats and he is not listening to anyone") sound like a rhymed reference to another well-known Russian saying "А Васька слушает да ест" ("And Vas'ka is listening but keeps eating") from another Krylov's fable «Кот и повар» («Cat and Cook») where Cook reproaches Cat Vas'ka for stealing stuff from the kitchen. The cat is listening to what Cook has to say but never stops eating a chicken that he has just stolen. By the end of the fable the cat consumes the chicken completely as Cook goes on with his speech with no signs of it coming to an end. The end of the fable advices to take action instead of talking in vain in those cases when the talk has no effect.

A point to note is that Putin's phrases can have many meanings (being in their native Russian) and direct translations can sometimes be wrong.

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