After Peskov Said Putin would Speak on May 9 via a Video Link, Some Russians Suggested that for Greater Security, One of His Doubles Would Appear

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 6 – Every time Putin is slated to appear in public, Russians speculate that it isn’t the Kremlin leader himself but one of his doubles. Now, such skepticism about him has reached a new point: after Peskos said Putin would speak on May 9 via video link, some Russians immediately suggested that for “greater security,” one of his doubles would do that.

            This is just one of the new anecdotes circulating in Russia that have been published by journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/45762/93). Among the best of the rest of the latest crop are the following:

·       Russian news reports that fires at a Krasnodar refinery were the spontaneous result of a drone attack, reminding everyone of the line that the patient died spontaneously after death came to him.

·       Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov has just been given the Kurchatov Gold Medal. Now Russians want to know: Does Kadyrov even know who Kurchatov was? And does he even know what a multiplication table is?

·       Russian opera singer Maria Maksakova, having been declared a foreign agent, must now state before each of her arias that “this musical material was produced and distributed by a foreign agent and give her full name and passport data.

·       The Belarusian-Russian union state has achieved a new victory: Belarus has introduced passport controls at the border. That is only logical given that the automobile and aviation industries in that republic were created in the same way.

·       Ukrainians have proved that they are terrorists by shooting down a Russian hypersonic missile.

·       Plans to label all goods imported from unfriendly countries “produced by an enemy of Russia” have raised questions about how good, smuggled in from abroad, will be labelled.

·       To make inflation less conspicuous, Russian firms have begun to put milk in bottles of 803 ML rather than the usual liter. Obviously, the next step will be to produce a ruble with only 93 kopecks in it.