Russia’s Main Slogan has Changed from ‘Catch Up and Surpass’ to ‘Survive and Survive,’ Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 22 – In the decades before the end of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin made the slogan “catch up and surpass” the West its basic slogan. Now, things have changed: Putin has made his basic slogan and thus the slogan for all Russians “survive and survive,” some Russians are now telling each other.

            This is one of the anecdotes Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova offers in her latest collection (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/47389/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Russians are demanding that the government stop foisting alien bank cards on them and instead give them cards that will allow them to buy things at grocery stores.

·       The KPRF is going on a youth kick: instead of its 80-year-old leader, it is nominating for president a 75-year-old official to run against Putin.

·       Beginnng in 2024, all books by foreign agents in Russia will be published by the Bonfire publishing house.

·       Now that Russians are getting eggs from Muslim Azerbaijan, they are worried as to whether it will be save to paint them for Easter.

·       Sisyphus is the perfect model for Russia today. He showed how it is possible to move from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.

·       Some Moscow officials are calling for the government to seize the savings Russians keep in banks. The only solution is to keep such savings under one’s bed.