Everyone Thought the Slogan ‘We Can Repeat’ was about Victory But It was Only about War, Russians Say Bitterly

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 7 – Russians know what it is to live with unending repair projects, and so now they joke bitterly that Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine is just like those: It isn’t something anyone can complete; it is only something that hopefully someone will finally stop.

            That is one of the new anecdotes Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaroyova offers this week (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/42886/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Putin’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine Like Repair Work: You Can’t Finish It; You Can Only Stop It, Russians Now Say

 

·       Veterans of the Great Patriotic War say that this must never happen again, but looters in Ukraine say that they can repeat what was done by their fathers and grandfathers.

 

·       Russians aren’t upset by inflation, some Russian leaders say, because consumption isn’t the most important thing. They laugh off higher costs for carrots and potatoes. What they are concerned about is the West’s confiscation of the yachts and villas of Russian oligarchs. Anyone who thinks differently will be classed as a foreign agent.

 

·       If only Putin had waited for Ukraine to attack first, then Russians could be getting all the assistance Ukraine is.

 

·       Because Ukrainian forces used Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites, some Russians say he will have to be tried in absentia and his satellites will have to be shot out of the sky.

 

·       It is too bad Stalin didn’t have officials like Putin’s. Then the Soviet dictator would have been able to bring charges like those Moscow has lodged against Ukraine leaders against German generals Manstein and Guderian in absentia, terrifying them and stopping the war

 

·       Russia will bring salvation to everyone, the Kremlin says. Yes, that’s what everyone is afraid of, Russians say.

 

·       Russians have always ben afraid of revolutions or counter-revolutions. But now they see that the real threat is from something else: counter-evolution.

 

·       It’s clear that during World War II, 27 million Soviet citizens died so that their descendants could have parades rather than a decent life. In order that Putin and his cronies can live in palaces, as a result, half of the country’s young people want to emigrate, half of its men don’t live to collect their pensions, and even worse, a majority don’t care.