Putin’s War will Be Remembered as Conflict between ‘Those who Fought for their Freedom and Those who Fought for Their Slavery,’ Some Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 23 – According to the latest Moscow anecdote, Putin’s war in Ukraine “will go down in history as a war of those who fought for their freedom against those who fought for their slavery,” a sign that some in the Russian Federation now understand that what is going on is far more than an act of regional aggression.

            This is just one of the new jokes and anecdotes Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova has assembled (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/44496/6). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       The Kremlin is offering new evidence that Ukraine planned to invade Russia: Kyiv built powerful defensive lines so deep in its territory that Russia, the victim of this aggression, still hasn’t been able to overcome them.

·       If the Russian authorities show no interest in you, that means you most likely aren’t doing anything useful for your country.

·       The Russian defense ministry has announced that the most important qualities of an ideal soldier are dementia and courage.

·       The Russian foreign ministry has denounced Warsaw’s refusal to allow Sergey Lavrov attend a meeting in Lodz as “unprecedented and provocative,” a statement that implies Russia’s attacks on Ukraine are a completely ordinary thing.

·       The Russian internet is overflowing with indignation that Ukrainians shot 12 Russian POWs but says nothing about the several tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians the Russian army has shot.

·       Everyone would be better off if the government provided money for needed medical procedures and the authorities had to resort to SMS campaigns to raise money to promote ‘the Russian world.’

·       The praise the Wagner Private Military Company is getting represents an amazingly frank admission that after all the years Putin has spent building a power vertical, the only viable structure in the Russian Federation is an illegal private gang. 

·       Those who want to restore the name of Stalingrad to Volgograd forget one thing: Stalingrad was an icon of courage and perseverance. If the name returns, it will only be the designation of a dying regional center.

·       In the latest demonstration that the Duma has become a madhouse, KPRF deputies can’t decide whether the fifth column is to blame for all of Russia’s problems or all the fifth column has left the country.