Putin's use of crude language reveals a lot about his worldview

(CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin set Russian media abuzz Tuesday following his news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The subject of Putin's remarks? The Minsk agreements, a ceasefire protocol signed by Ukraine and Russia in 2015, and whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could abide by them. But it was Putin's coarse language, rather than the technical details of the truce that generated the most clicks in Russia.

"As for the Minsk agreements, are they alive and do they have any prospect or not?" Putin said. "I believe that there is simply no other alternative. I repeat once again, in Kyiv, they either say that they will comply, or they say that this will destroy their country. The incumbent president recently stated that he does not like a single point of these Minsk agreements. 'Like it or don't like it, it's your duty, my beauty.' They must be fulfilled. It won't work otherwise."

Once again, Putin has given the world a sense of his soul. The Kremlin leader's position on the Minsk agreement is not new. But his crude vernacular -- addressing Zelensky in condescending and gendered language -- left some Russian journalists wondering openly if the president was, in essence, making a crude joke.

Asked in a conference call with reporters if those remarks might be "hinting at a sexual subtext," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov gave an anodyne response. "The president meant that if a state committed to certain obligations, if there is a signature of the head of state [under them], then these commitments must be fulfilled," he said.

A reporter pressed further: Was Putin, perhaps, familiar with the work of a Russian-language folk-punk band that apparently had a line similar to Putin's in one of their songs? Peskov gave a firm no.