Is Russia Now Occupied or at War with Another Country? Russians Said to Be Asking

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct.15 – Now that Moscow officials have decided to guard military offices around the country and Russian men are fleeing abroad to escape mobilization, Russians are asking whether their country is really at war with Ukraine or in fact has already become an occupied country itself.

            That is just one of the anecdotes in the latest collection offered by Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/44195/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Moscow doctors have been told to stop testing for covid because if there is no test, there is no illness.

·       FSB films about the arrest of ‘terrorist’s have been nominated  for an Oscar in the category “best performance by a director.”

·       Former prime minister Sergey Stepanin says Putin will remain in office as long as military mobilization continues. The only open question is who will die first, the people or Putin himself?

·       Russian officials are increasingly talking about where they will fly off to if things get worse. London and Geneva are no longer possible, the UAE may be, and some are even betting that African countries are the most promising. As for the Russian people, they’ve been promised heaven by Putin, but that  begs the question as to whether he knows where that is or is simply lying as he always does.

·       Ukrainian President Zelensky has been nominated for the Sakharov Human Rights Prize. In response, the Kremlin says Putin will be nominated for the Darwin Prize, given to the fittest who survive the competition.

·       Duma deputies are calling for the shooting of Russian officers who allow those recently mobilized to die in conflict. Clearly, they don’t have the guts to call for the execution of the commander-in-chief who is really responsible.

·       Russia would be better off if those conducting the mobilization were seized rather than having pilots seized during flights or doctors during operations.

·       The Putin regime has taken decisive steps to prevent a coup. By restricting the shoes ballerinas at the Bolshoi can buy, they’ve made Swan Lake an impossibility. And as everyone knows, without showing of Swan Lake on television how can a coup happen?