Are you an optimist or a pessimist or a cynic or an agnostic? Pick one.

A good way to find out who you are: what do you think of President Putin and the future of Russia? Try these hopelessly unscientific quizzes:

Quiz 1: Putin's Kiss (here)
Background: President Putin was walking in the Kremlin grounds on June 28, 2006, when he stopped to chat with some tourists, among them a 5-year-old boy. Channel One state TV showed Putin kneeling down and asking his name. The boy replied, "Nikita." Putin lifted the boy's shirt and kissed his stomach.

Quiz 2: Great Russian paintings (here)
Background: the great Russian paintings from 100+ years ago, before the Soviet era interrupted things, when the issue was (as it has always been) whether to look West, or into the Russian heartland, or East to the Orient and China. What is Russia's future direction?

Quiz 3: The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko (here)
Background: the Kremlin kills people it doesn't like, or tries to. Litvinenko was poisoned with Polonium-210 in London on November 1, 2006. He was dead three weeks later at the age of 43. Was it worth it to Putin?

After taking the quizzes, scroll down for what I think it all means.

Explanation:

It's my belief that people choose aspirationally. So if you got 2 of 3 or 3 of 3 to indicate consistency, then the inverse is your actual identity marker.

So, if you got optimist a couple of times, then you are actually a pessimist.
If you got pessimist, you are actually an optimist.
If you got cynic, you are actually an agnostic.
If you got agnostic, you are actually a cynic. Is that you in the painting above?

We appear to have no good paintings of agnostics..... 😃