EDITORIAL: The Russian and the Grapes

EDITORIAL

The Russian and the Grapes

It seems like only yesterday that the Russian government was telling the world that its falling stock market, currency and reserves, its soaring inflation and unemployment, were only minor temporary hiccups on Russia’s great march towards “resurgence.”  Ordinary Russians are not affected by the stock market, we were told, and Grandpa Putin will soon set it all right again.

What a difference a day makes! 

Now, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has told the Financial Times:  ”The longer we have low commodity prices, the sooner we will have a new model of our economy. … It’s better if we have two, three, five years as a difficult period.”

That’s right, now the Kremlin wants the crisis to continue for at least five years. It’s a good thing!  Presumably, best of all would be a massive depression with millions starving, so Russia could purge its weak and sick and emerg stronger and more competitive!  Where is Stalin when you need him?

This is what Russia has come to.  It would be so hiliarious, if only tens of millions of lives did not hang in the balance, including millions of innocent children.

There are still some honest, intelligent men left in Russia. We report today on how the heroic German Gref, now in charge of Sberbank,  has directly and publicly contradicted Vladimir Putin’s claim that the banking crisis was over, when in fact a whole new round of failures and collapses is expected.  Gref should watch his back. The next thing we know he’ll be fired, in prison or catching a bullet in the back of the head on a dark street. 

It’s the fate all true Russian patriots have come to expect from their beloved motherland.  There are simply no words which can express our admiration for true Russian patriots like Mr. Gref, or our deep sadness at their inevitable fate.

Advertisement