EDITORIAL
You’re Making it too Easy for us, Mr. Putin
It used to be somewhat challenging to expose the fraud that is Vladimir Putin. The smokescreen around him, created by the accident of soaring world crude prices, combined with his malignant ability to lie without shame or remorse, were somewhat formidable obstacles.
But now, it’s like shooting fishkies in a barrel. Putin is getting desperate, and he’s getting very sloppy.
Take for example the grand reopening of the Kurskaya Metro Station in Moscow, bedecked with a restored motto (pictured below): “Stalin raised us to be loyal to the nation; He inspired us to work and be heroic.” Really, it’s like shooting fishkies in a barrel. Putin may as well have had the sign read, in English: “We’re a nation of barbarians hellbent on self-destruction, and we’re proud of it!”
Stalin leads the Russians
Imagine Germany rebuilding a Nazi-era subway station and etching in marble the phrase: “Hitler raised us to be loyal to the nation, he inspired us to work and be heroic.” Work hard, presumably, wiping out Russians and Jews. It’s difficult if not imposible to imagine that, because Germany is a civilized society. Russia, however, just isn’t. And when one reads about such incidents, one isn’t even surprised. Therein lies Russia’s downfall. No nation can surive a reputatin like that for long.
Putin used to be better at hiding that, though. Now it seems he’s just given up, letting himself go, getting fat and ugly and smelly and not caring who notices or how often.
The Russian love affair with Stalin is everywhere these days. When state-sponsored propaganda network Russia Today made a list of the 10 silliest things ever said by world leaders, the only Russian representative on the list was Stalin, uttering: “Life has become better, life has become more fun!” [«Жить стало лучше, жить стало веселее!»] To Russia Today, that’s merely a silly thing to say, the same as Bill Clinton talking about his aversion for small-breasted women. Remember, this is a network that has used Stalin in its advertising, telling readers he was a great romanitic poet. It, like the Russians it represens, really believes Stalin wasn’t such a bad guy and has been misunderstood.
Little wonder, then, that Russians have no problem building a shrine to Stalin in the heart of Moscow at a major transit hub. Only one Russian made the list — but, by the way, five of the top ten silliest world leaders were Americans according to the objective Russian source of news. Russians show contempt for the outside world and elevate their worst enemies to the status of hero, leaving them totally alone and ruled by madmen.
No nation can survive that kind of misconduct for long.
La Russophobe 
Meanwhile the Georgian government is removing the last statue of Stalin in the country from the square in Gori.
http://www.georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=7151
Hurray!
To Andrew, This is news to me, and very happy news. I suspect, though, that some Georgian people would like to keep reminders of that: ‘Local Boy Makes Good’.
Perhaps, the Georgian government can sell these Stalin statues….to V.Putin? Putler, afterall, highly respects that devil.
R.D.
Great news, indeed.
Obviously, modern and young Georgian politicos are moving to bury the old mass murdering bastard who happened to share the same ethnicity but not much more than that. Good for them.
Germany hasn’t had statues of Hitler left standing since the war ended, but, then, they were a culture willing to admit their culpability, repent, move on and rejoin the rest of western humanity.
Russia, meanwhile ……..fast forward 60 years, elects on a popular tv show Stalin as third most admired Russian in spite of the fact that even the most obtuse brain dead among them understands in collective memory that he murdered family members and neighbors.
Pootie so far has a free reign with his degenerate and aged complicit sheeple.
Basbushka, the degenerate Communists, braindead Ivan Sixpack and the apolitical stuff acquiring young so richly deserve Pootie and Stalin’s revival.
The obvious and big difference between Russia and Germany is that Russia was not defeated in that war and didn’t have anything like de-Nazification Germany went through (and I am not sure how voluntarily, mostly she was forced to). From what I read there were a couple of monkey trials of Beria and such during Khruschev time, but that was all. Nothing like the Nuremberg type trials
RV, agree, both Japan and Nazi Germany benefitted from total unconditional defeat and years of Allied occupation. It was swift and thorough.
Unless there is some miraculous change in the Russian masses’ apathy, willful ignorance and a moral compass is found they will forever live as heirs to Stalin’s violence and bad ideas. Putin is just a symptom.
I point that out a lot because the media when reporting on Russia so often minimizes or takes the masses’ complicity out of the equation as if they are neutral and entirely held hostage.
Hi Penny,
It is not willful ignorance; it is the daily PSYWAR of the kremlin’s disinformation.
Polll: only fifth of Russians say WW2 started in 1939
Today, 13:18 | Interfax-Ukraine
http://www.kyivpost.com/world/47790
Perhaps, this kind of belief is based on poor education of that one fifth
The whole world is crazy right now, why not add stalin into the mix. It is a good thing for all that Russia is in a failure mode.
@”10 silliest things ever said” by world leaders
I guess Medvedev doesn’t qualify (because he’s no “world leader”), but anyway:
Medvedev Calls Rebels Faithless Bandits
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/381505.htm
Medvedev said he agreed with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov that rebels should no longer be called Islamic extremists. “The right word to call bandits is bandits,” he said. “There is no religious content, even if they think in their heads they are faithful Muslims.”
The list of 10 silliest things is clearly not fair. There’s only one quote by Bush!
Although I have to admit that having Bush compete on saying silly things equally would be like letting Klitschko box in the next Olympics…