Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 12 – Icons
featuring the visage of Vladimir Putin went on sale at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo
airport for 80,000 rubles (1300 US dollars), and the Kremlin leader’s press secretary
Dmitry Peskov announced Putin isn’t pleased and doesn’t welcome such things (chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/v-aeroportu-sankt-peterburga-poyavilas-ikona-s-izobrazheniem-putina-na).
Putin’s display of modesty likely
has more to do with the fact that people and journalists from the West would
see this icon and read much into it than opposition to this use of his visage
in general. After all, beginning two years ago, Russian soldiers in some units
were required to kiss a Putin icon (publizist.ru/blogs/4796/25580/).
And
even earlier, Putin’s hero Stalin began to appear on icons. In 2015, a Stalin icon was even used to bless
Russia’s strategic bombers at the Engels airbase, and some Russian nationalists
pressed for the canonization of the former communist dictator as an Orthodox
saint (rusjev.net/2015/06/16/svyashhennik-v-rossii-osvyatil-bazu-yadernyih-bombardirovshhikov-ikonoy-stalina-foto/).
Putin icons aren’t the only ones having
problems. The ROC MP’s Sofrino works released icons featuring the emblems of
the various forces of the Russian military (ahilla.ru/voenizirovannye-ikony-s-emblemami-rodov-vojsk-predlagayut-kupit-v-sofrino/).
That sparked complaints, and they were quickly withdrawn (ahilla.ru/ikonu-ili-proroka-iz-vdv-ubrali-s-sajta-sofrino-po-ukazaniyu-direktora).
Putin’s have likely been removed
from the airport in the Northern Capital, but it seems unlikely that they will
disappear in locations far from where Westerners go.
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