Sunday, November 13, 2022

After Kherson, Moscow Prepared for Monologue without Any Preliminary Conditions, Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 10 – The withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson where they were supposed to remain forever has given rise to many observations by Russians about what this means for them and their country. Among the most explicit expressions of their thinking have come in the form of anecdotes.

            Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova has assembled some of these (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/44412/-). Among the best of them are the following:

·       With the fall of Kherson, the Russian Foreign Ministry has declared that it is prepared for a monologue without any preliminary conditions.

·       Now we know yet another detail of Putin’s plan for Ukraine. On Day 260 of the special operation, Russian forces will pull back from Kherson to the other side of the Dnipr. “Not one second later and not one centimeter further!”

·       Russian prosecutors are charging the editors of Russia’s most authoritative dictionary with a crime because their definition of “forever” no longer corresponds to the reality of Kherson’s being part of Russia.

·       Once again, Russians find themselves in a situation where first they are called upon to unite behind the leadership and then to pay for the leadership’s mistakes.

·       Now that Kherson has fallen, the Kremlin says it is paying close attention to what is happening in Kyiv. The real question is this: when will it start paying  attention to what is happening in Voronezh, Chita, Saratov and Volgograd?

·       Putin says the fall of Kherson isn’t that important because it is after all “an artificial city invented by Lenin.

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