Russians about to Mark ‘Day of Putin’s Victory over Fascism,’ Eidman Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 5 – “The main religious holiday of present-day Russia, the Day of the Victory of Putin over Fascism,’ is approaching,” Igor Eidman says. Vladimir Putin has promised Russians many things, but the only thing he really has delivered is a victory which the Soviet people and the Western allies won years before the Kremlin leader was born.

            Whenever anyone calls attention to his unfulfilled promises, the commentator says, Putin shows himself to be a real “miracle worker” by claiming the victory of others for himself (gordonua.com/blogs/eydman/priblizhaetsya-den-pobedy-putina-nad-fashizmom-po-tradicii-on-primerit-trofeynuyu-furazhku-gitlera-kotoraya-k-etomu-momentu-zamirotochit-1551798.html).

            Grateful Russians are expected to share Putin’s views about “’the genetic code of victors,’” they are supposed to carry cardboard signs with pictures of people who aren’t even their grandfathers, and those declining number of veterans still alive are supposed to be thrilled with the miserly allotments Putin gives them, in amounts far less than other countries do.

            And as Russians do so, Putin, “’the chief victor over fascism’” will attend the shrine of the Russian armed forces in Patriot Park where he will see and be seen as seeing trophies from a war he did not fight in, whose veterans he doesn’t treat well, and whose own promises he doesn’t keep.