Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 5 – One Russian
publishing house has just released a translation of a Norwegian book that
Vladimir Putin could have written himself, and another Moscow publisher has put
out a three volume collection of his public statements that he actually did and
that bring him into line with his Soviet predecessors.
Alpina books has just released a translation of
Mikal Hem’s “How to Become a Dictator: A Practical Handbook” (232 pp., 978-5-9614-5403-1)
(alpinabook.ru/catalog/temporary/75252/).
And the Ukrainian Medua portal has posted the section of this book on how dictators
should build a cult of personality (meduza.io/feature/2016/06/05/kak-pravilno-sozdat-kult-lichnosti).
Judging from that excerpt, the
Kremlin leader could have written this book with even more details than the
Norwegian writer provides.
But also this weekend, Moscow’s
Zvonitsa publishing house has released three volumes of Putin’s “Direct Speech,”
a collection of “all the public speeches of the leader” that will be “useful”
for future generations, according to Georgy Zaytsev, the head of that company (ura.ru/news/1052251551). Of course, it
may have a more immediate purpose as collections of works by past Soviet
leaders often did.
Zaytsev told the media that “First
of all, Putin preserved the country, then he lifted Russia from its knees. The
personality of Putin is equal to such figures as Charles de Gaulle or Fidel
Castro. This is,” he assured those who might buy these three blue-covered volumes,
“a portrait of an era.”
Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry
Peskov added that the current Russian president is “obligated to leave his
record in history. He has record popularity within the country and abroad.
People trust him.” He cannot do otherwise.
Peskov confirmed that the publication of the three volumes had been
agreed to by the Presidential Administration.
No comments:
Post a Comment