Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 27 – After a Moscow court sentenced pro-war activist Igor Strelkov to four years in prison on charges of extremism, some Russians observed that his conviction could be his passport to fighting in Ukraine. After all, if he agrees to join the Russian military, he could get his wish to contribute to the war and be pardoned for doing so as well.
That is just one of the anecdotes Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova includes in her latest collection (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/47614/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:
· Moscow is now selling stripped down Vesta vehicles to attract Russians into buying cars. The special vehicles cost 1.5 million rubles – about 15,000 US dollars – but they lack airbags, steering wheel controls and heated seats. But they do have one great advantage besides price: no one would want to steal such a car.
· The Kremlin’s domestic policies make absolute sense. Poll show that the main supporters of Putin are the elderly, the poor and the uneducated. Moscow is doing everything it can to increase the share of such people in the population.
· The Russian government has announced a new list of compulsory subjects for the 2024 United State Exam: Denunciations, God’s Law, Digging Trenches, and the History of the United Russia Party.
· Pet food prices are skyrocketing, but Russians shouldn’t despair: prices for their food will go up even more just as soon as the presidential election is over.
· Russia’s actual population is much smaller and declining far more rapidly than Moscow admits. But no one should be surprised. After all, in school, Russians were taught that all species flourish and multiply in favorable conditions and wither or even die out in unfavorable ones.
· Other than Moscow, the only region that is growing is Kaliningrad. Russians are moving there en masse because they’ve heard that it will soon be called Königsberg again.
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