Paul Goble
Staunton, Dec. 15 – Igor Krasnov, Russia’s chief prosecutor, is calling for Russia “to exchange experience with Iran” on how best to fight protests. Given that Tehran has begun to execute some demonstrators, Muscovites are reportedly concerned that at least some in the Putin regime want to do the same thing in Russia.
This is just one of the instructive anecdotes that Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova has assembled and published (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/44680/-). Among the best of the rest are the following;
· TASS reports that its sources say Putin’s annual address to the Federal Assembly will take place as early as the next decade.
· Kherson Governor Vladimir Saldo wants to construct a new city on a site that is currently being shelled by Ukrainian forces. Any work that is done will likely to destroyed the next day, raising questions about the competence of officials to do their jobs.
· Russians are now citing the Marquis de Custine’s observation that any Russian ruler who isn’t “either an angel or a genius” will lose his mind after 20 years in power and that this madness is contagious with his subjects becoming not only victims but willing accomplishes in his mad schemes.
· As bad as things have become in Russia, people there are encouraged by the fact that North Koreans somehow manage to live and so they will be able to as well.
· Putin’s programs about the future are ever less specific lest anyone try to hold him account for not reaching his goals. The country will “deepen, expand and improve” but by how much, he will no longer say.
· Putin says the poorest Russians have seen their incomes rise by 27.8 percent over the last year. If your income has risen by that amount, you should be pleased. If it hasn’t, you have another reason to be pleased: it means you are far from being the poorest of Russians.
· In the Russian social elevator, there are no buttons to change floors.
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