For Halloween, Zyuganov Should Dress as Freddy Krueger, Putin Presumably as Himself

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 31 --  Many Russians oppose the celebration of Halloween, with some of them even suggesting that the holiday represents another Western effort to destroy Russia (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/10/27/nasazhdenie_chuzhdyh_prazdnikov_rabotaet_na_raspad_nashego_gosudarstva/).

            They have issued warnings and in some places imposed bans (newsland.com/community/4765/content/rabotniki-barov-i-restoranov-na-kubani-rasskazali-o-zaprete-prazdnovat-khellouin/6045562, kavkazr.com/a/haalowwen-v-dagestane/28812652.html and rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=79314).

            Nonetheless, people across Russia are celebrating Halloween with all the actions people in the West have long experienced and some new ones as well, an indication that Russians like anyone else will try to take advantage of any occasion for a holiday, especially when times are bleak (fedpress.ru/article/1884111).

            But perhaps the most amusing – and perhaps insightful – comment on this year’s Halloween in Russia comes from the URA news agency. It offered some suggestions as to what Hollywood characters various Russian opposition figures should dress up in to go trick or treating tonight (ura.news/news/1052310279).

            Here are its recommendations:

·         KPRF head Gennady  Zyuganov should dress as Freddy Krueger,

·         LDPR head Vladimir Zhirinovsky as Pennywise the clown,

·         Opposition candidate Aleksey Navalny as Voldemort,

·         New Opposition candidate Ksensiya Sobchak as Samara Morgan,

·         Anti-Mathilda crusader Natalya Poklonskaya as Harley Queen, and

·         Anti-Gay Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov as himself. That’s scary enough.

The news agency didn’t propose anything for Vladimir Putin, but perhaps its guidance for Milonov could serve for the Kremlin leader as well.