Kremlin Knows Power Corrupts and to Protect Russian People from Spread of this Plague Hires Only Those Already Corrupt

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 2 – The leaders of Russia are well aware that power corrupts; and so in order not to allow corruption to spread into the population at large, they on the most compassionate grounds work to ensure that only those who are already corrupt are hired for the top positions, Russians say.

            That is just one of the anecdotes in the latest collection of stories Russians are telling each other about their lives that has been assembled by Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/45949/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Russian schools shouldn’t start the day with the national anthem and military training but with the repetition of wise sayings from the Russian language such as “what goes around comes around” and “don’t dig a hole for someone else, you’ll fall into it yourself.”

·       Dmitry Medvedev didn’t show up for work today because he is extinguishing a fire at a suburban distillery. Eyewitnesses say he is throwing himself into the conflagration as if he were saving children.

·       Soon the Duma will introduce punishments for those who look into the sky and require that they look only at the ground or at television, which are two things that are essentially the same.

·       If a Russian remains silent, he has already been misunderstood.

·       The singer known as Shaman should now restore his real name, “Dronov,” because that means “of the drones.”