If Mongols Behaved Like Russians Do Now, May Russians Wouldn’t, Russians Suggest

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 4 – According to an anecdote circulating in Moscow, Mongolian patriots are now insisting that their country has risen from its knees and is now prepared to repeate its march on Moscow eight centuries ago. “We can repeat,” the Mongolians say; and “we can collect tribute again for 250 years.”

            Perhaps if Russians saw the Mongolians behaving that way, they might be too ashamed to be behaving in exactly the same way.

            This is just one of the new jokes and anecdotes collected by Moscow journalist Natalya Pushkaryova in her latest collection (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/43632/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Belarusian officials have sentenced a man for posting a picture of Kim Jong-Un with a Hitlerite mustache. He was accused of insulting Lukashenka, yet another indication that Belarus is today the most fraternal regime to Russia at the present time.

·       Russians are really worried that the US and China may make peace behind Russia’s back and thus at its expense, something that is becoming the biggest nightmare of the Kremlin.

·       Duma leaders are complaining about Latvia’s plans to revise residence permits because so many rich Russians have them and don’t want to lose the chance to live in a NATO country.

·       Russian commentators no longer can give any real explanation for why they think Russia will win in Ukraine. Instead, they are simply insisting that Russians don’t need to live better themselves but simply and desperately need to kill others.

·       Putin has achieved something no one had thought possible: the price of a Lada in Russia has now reached that of a BMW Sportback in Germany, although Russians don’t have the opportunity to get the car they’d really like to have.

·       It is absolutely true that Zakhar Prilepin plans to run for president of Russia, but his plans are in the best Russian tradition. He won’t oppose Putin but will only seek to boost interest and turnout and thus make Putin the winner. That is the only role for an opposition politician in Russia today.