Dana Rohrabacher Claims He Once Lost A Drunken Arm-Wrestling Match To Vladimir Putin

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) claims he once lost a drunken arm-wrestling match to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with 89.3 KPCC in California, Rohrabacher said Putin, as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, was part of "a group of young political leaders" who met with him in the early 1990s. Rohrabacher invited Putin and his group to play a game of football, and after they visited a pub where they "were having a little bit too much to drink."

“Anyway, we started arguing about who won the Cold War, etc. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had a little bit too much to drink at the pub," Rohrabacher said. "So we got down to these arm-wrestling matches and I ended up being paired off with Putin -- and he’s a little guy, but boy, I’ll tell ya: He put me down in a millisecond. He is tough, his muscles are just unbelievable. And then his bodyguard gets up and this buddy of mine and says, ‘Oh, I’ll take him.’ And my friend put his bodyguard down so it was good.”

Rohrabacher said Putin's "tough guy" demeanor is "no reason we shouldn't try to work with him." Putin posted an op-ed in the New York Times on Thursday, force "force has proved ineffective and pointless" in the past and denouncing any potential U.S. military strikes in Syria.

(h/t BuzzFeed)