Reacting to Events in Tbilisi, Putin Says that Georgia is ‘an Artificial Region Dreamed Up by Stalin,’ Some Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 10 – Russians are now focused on Georgia where the unheard of has now happened: the ruling party has withdrawn its foreign agents bill in response to protests by the population. Putin, however, reacted differently, some say. He declared that Georgia is ‘an artificial region dreamed up by Stalin.”

            That is just one of the new anecdotes circulating in the Russian Federation, according to Tatyana Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/45329/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Russian historians want to know why they are getting paid if physicists are right that the past can’t be changed.

·       The main difference between Russia and China is that in the former people are called back to the past and in the latter they are urged to look to the future.

·       Some are worried about the consequences of a plan to give those artists who go to Ukraine to perform for Russian troops the status of combatants. Does that mean that they will eventually be charged with war crimes?

·       A crisis is worse than a divorce, some Russians say. You lose half of your money but you keep your wife.

·       After seeing her grandson use skype, a Russian grandmother has decided that she can talk to Putin on television.