Russia’s Future Under Putin is the Increasingly Distant Past, Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 18 – Everyone can now see, some Russians say, that their country’s future under Vladimir Putin is going to come from the increasingly distant past, with the Kremlin leader taking Russia back not just to Stalin’s times but to those of Ivan the Terrible or the Mongol Yoke, updated of course to be the Chinese one.

            This is just one of the anecdotes Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova offers in her latest collections (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/47363/- and  publizist.ru/blogs/107374/47372/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Rosstat has decided that from now on, any Russians who own at least two eggs each will be classified as middle class.

·       Moscow plans to prosecute those who buy books by authors classified as extremist will be tried and convicted for financing terrorism. One wonders whether the burning of these books like in Nazi Germany can be far behind.

·       Colorado has shown the way, but Russian realities are different. Colorado has banned Donald Trump from the ballot because he was involved in an uprising against the government. But just imagine if Saratov Oblast did the same thing and for the same reasons. Its officials would soon find out just how different their situation is from that of the people of the US state.

·       According to some experts, Russia is about to enrich the world’s political terminology with the concept of “sluggish sovereignty,” an update on Soviet-era charges of “sluggish schizophrenia.”

·       In Russia, lest anyone forget, every day is Checkists’ Day.