Cover your belly buttons in the presence of heads of state

As a writer, I'm often told "write about what you know," so here we go - another post regarding bizarre-o life in Russia. In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words. The pic is from summer 2006 (July, if I recall correctly...the image is seared into my mind forever). Vladimir Vladimirovich was hangin' out at the Kremlin when, for no explicable reason, he decided to play nicey with some Russian citizens paying a visit to their nation's capital.

And....he expresses his affection by pulling up a little boy's shirt and kissing his belly button. I'm not saying anything but...that's just kind of.....weird.