A good ol' Russian pig shear:
Russian president Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that his government would not extradite Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who has claimed responsibility for leaking classified documents to the media, adding that he "would not like to deal with such issues because it is like shearing a pig: there's lots of squealing and little fleece."
Um, what?
Julia Ioffe, the New Republic's resident Russia expert, explains:
What it means is that it is useless, thankless work: pigs, after all, have no fleece. It is an old, if rather obscure Russian saying that comes from a series that can be best described as "the Devil is a moron" series. The original is: "The devil sheared a pig--lots of squealing, but little fleece." (Also: "The devil struck flint against rock, and got a shower of goblins and mermaids.")
Get it?