‘Where are They Going to Send Us?’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 10 – Among the most widely told Chukchi jokes in Soviet times was one that goes as follows: Two Chukchis are sitting on the shore of the Arctic Sea, thousands and thousands of kilometers from Moscow; and one says to the other “You want to hear a political joke?” To which his companion replies “Where are they going to send us?”

            That story comes to mind in a case this week about a television journalist in Kamchatka who couldn’t help but laugh when she ran a Moscow-produced story about how many new benefits the Russian government was now offering the population (novayagazeta.ru/news/2020/02/10/158961-veduschaya-vestey-primorie-rassmeyalas-chitaya-novost-ob-indeksatsii-sotsvyplat-lgotnikam).

            Unfortunately for Aleksandr Novikova, her laughter was recorded and the video clip of it went viral (youtube.com/watch?v=W6nXtlxGRCs&feature=youtu.be). But fortunately for her, she is at the other end of the Russian Federation and despite a talking to by more senior and “responsible” officials (tass.ru/obschestvo/7730599), nothing terrible happened to her. 

            When even government-employed journalists can’t keep a straight face when reporting government claims and then when the government can’t do much of anything in response as in this case may be an even better indicator of how Russians really feel about Vladimir Putin and his regime than the much more widely reported prank in a Moscow apartment block elevator.

            There, Russian blogger Bashir Dokhov put up a picture of Putin and a camera to record the reactions of riders.  The reactions weren’t very positive about the Kremlin leader. Many contained expletives. Among those that didn’t, one said “What a nightmare.” Another exclaimed “This is the worst thing that could possibly happen to our home.”

            But the most universal reaction reported in a clip that has attracted some two million views was “Why is he here?”  One imagines that this isn’t just a question about in the elevator and that such reactions given that they are in the capital will entail more serious consequences (voanews.com/europe/russian-video-prank-putin-elevator-goes-viral).