Russian Forces in Ukraine Ordered to Take More Losses So UN will Ask Kyiv to Stop the War, Some Russians Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 24 – Russians have come up with an explanation as to why the Russian army has recently lost so many men in Ukraine. The reason is simple, they say. Moscow has ordered commanders to ensure that Russian losses go up so that the UN will feel compelled to ask Ukraine to end the war.

            This is just one of the recent anecdotes Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova has assembled showing how the man and woman in the street in Russia is attempting to explain what is going on (https://publizist.ru/blogs/107374/47029/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       When Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says something being reported about Putin isn’t true, Russians know that his words are confirmation of just the opposite.

·       There are now three signs of a revolutionary situation: the rulers can’t, the lower classes don’t want, and the Jews are leaving.

·       Russians know that the only news they can count on comes from reliable sources such as conversations in the kitchen and the talk of grandmothers on park benches.

·       A Russian calls for an ambulance because people around him feel bad. Asked to specify his address, the man says simply “Russia.”

·       Russian Rail says it will “cannibalize” older trains to keep newer ones running, a remarkable use of terms that says far more than Moscow can possibly want to admit.

·       Russians regret that they will never be on their knees again. After all, when they were, the dollar was worth only 36 rubles, gasoline was cheap, the media weren’t full of foreign agents, and political prisoners were remembered only occasionally.