Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 5 – Often when something happens abroad, Russians come up with anecdotes that are a response less to what has occurred than one to the views the Kremlin or commentators express or a comment on their own situation. That is especially the case when the government and the commentators are anything but unanimous in their assessments.
That has been the case with Russian jokes about the violence in Kazakhstan, some of which Moscow journalist Tatiana Pushkaryova has assembled for the Publizist.ru portal (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/41763/-):
When Kazakhs protest, their government promises to lower gas prices; but in Russia, that is impossible: there are too few Kazakhs.
Unhappy is the fate of dictators! You make you and your family billionaires, you erect monuments and rename cities in your honor, and you plan to remain in your position for life. But then all at once everything you’ve done turns to dust and you are ready “to leave the country for medical treatment.” But this pattern hasn’t taught dictators anywhere anything.
The Kazakh people have invaded Kazakhstan, and the powers there have asked Russia for military assistance against the aggressor.
The West must have been behind the Kazakh riots. No one goes into the streets when prices rise and living standards fall. Look at us. That’s what’s happening in Russia; and we don’t go on strike.
Kazakhstan President Tokayev announced that he wouldn’t shoot at his own people and so he was calling in the Russians to do that for him.
Putin’s propagandists have become reluctant to talk about what the Kazakh people are doing lest it give the Russian people ideas.
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