Mrs. Arbel talked to a Russian immigrant friend of ours, who’d heard Putin/Poutine[*]/Vlad the Invader’s “state of the nation” speech.
Our friend said that there was surprisingly little discussion of the Ukraine invasion — aside from the usual ‘she made me hit her’ BS about the invasion being the West’s fault.
Instead, it was all about domestic issues, the economy, infrastructure etc. Lots of promises, with this soundtrack /sarc
One Russian MP from Samara (named Kuibyshev in Soviet days [**]) generated headlines by watching the speech with noodles hanging off his ears (in Russian culture, implying the speaker is full of “it”).
Mikhail Abdalkin MP (photograph from the article). How predictably, Putinistas are now calling for his arrest for treason. They sound like more threatening versions of certain Kachsucker politicians here — except they are dangerous there, merely pathetic here.
It would all be hilarious were it not for the tragic loss of 300,000 lives and counting.
Another song comes to mind:
… and silence speaks so much louder than words…
… of promises broken…
[*] This is the conventional rendering of his surname in French, but also the name for Canada’s (originally Québecois) dish of french fries, cheese curds and gravy. It’s also the first name of Canada’s wokemunist dic(k)tator, Poutine Castreau.
[**] when the Wehrmacht ‘s Army Group Center stood nearly at the gates of Moscow, part of the Soviet government apparatus was being moved to Kuibyshev as a fallback capital until Stalin [y”sh] declined to leave the capital.
Spin, strangeness, and charm 