Russia’s Problem is that Those Building Capitalism There Lived Under Communism, Some Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 22 – Some Russians are now saying that one of the most important problems their country now faces is that those who say they are committed to building capitalism earlier lived under communism and so are approaching their new task using all the tools and assumptions they had earlier.

            That is just one of the anecdotes Russians are telling each other this week that have been collected by Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/47004/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Russians are now being reassured that their current problems will eventually end because none of them or us is eternal.

·       Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has told Russians they should vacation in North Korea, but Russians say there is no reason to do so because given when Putin is doing, they will soon be able to have all the same experiences while remaining in Russia.

·       The Russian expert community increasing resembles a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. Each declares that he or she is an expert and hasn’t said anything the bosses dislike for at least six months.

·       Putin told Russians to install table tennis tables if not in their apartments then on the landing. But Russians say they can’t do it in their apartments because there is room there only for a tennis chair.

·       People aren’t leaving villages because of their names, despite what the Duma believes. They are leaving because there are no roads, pharmacies or medical centers. It isn’t going to keep them in the villages by renaming these places Paradise or Kingdom of Heaven.

·       Russia’s degenerates object to the increasing tendency of Russians to refer to politicians as degenerates. That is an insult to all degenerates, they say.

·       In the new Russian language textbooks, Svoboda (“freedom”) will now be shortened to its first three letters, SVO, which of course stand for the special military operation in Ukraine.