EDITORIAL: The Shameless Fraud called Putin

EDITORIAL

The Shameless Fraud called Putin

Mr Putin repeatedly praised the quality of the Lada car he was driving, giving valuable free publicity to the car’s struggling Russian manufacturer Avtovaz. However, he admitted he would not be personally driving the vehicle for the entire journey and would sometimes travel in his convoy of expensive foreign-made Jeeps.

Vladimir Putin was off on another one of his utterly absurd publicity stunts last week, this time driving a thousand miles across Russia in a Lada to prove how great the car is and encourage his fellow citizens to purchase one, while at the same time showing his own mettle as a he-man destined to rule Russia for life.

Except that Putin wasn’t driving a Russian Lada most of the time; most of the time, he was riding in an American-made Jeep.

It was highly ironic, of course, that Putin felt he needed the security of a Jeep, since the other purpose of his little journey before the cameras was to prove that Russia’s newly-completed trans-Siberian roadway, from Chita to Khabarovsk, was a viable roadway. But in fact Putin was stricken with fear not just that his flimsy Russian car would break down, but that defects in the new “highway” would frustrate the efforts of anything but the most determined all-terrain vehicle manufactured abroad.

Let’s be clear:  The Lada has sucked, its sucks now, and it will continue to suck until the government stops keeping its manufacturer alive artificially and the whole operation finally collapses. Everyone in Russia knows this perfectly well, but Putin doesn’t care, because he believes (as every other Russian ruler has always believed) that they are too stupid to remember it or too cowardly and hopeless to do anything about it if they did remember.

Putin’s willingness to lie to his countrymen is hardly surprising, of course, since he’s a proud KGB spy who has spent his entire life learning how to be dishonest, and since he’s seeking to delude his countrymen into believing he deserves to be handed the absolute power of an autocrat for life.

But nonetheless, Putin’s shamelessness in openly acknowledging his duplicity is deeply disturbing, as is is open contempt for the people of his country.  While he rides in a Jeep, he urges them to stake their savings on a Lada, and to risk their safety on his new road.  A genuine Russian patriot, of course, would not purchase Jeeps or any other foreign vehicle with Russian tax dollars.  A genuine Russian patriot would not waste billions of such dollars on cold-war provocation and aggression; he would invest in projects that would make a real difference in the lives of his fellow citizens — few if any of whom wish to drive through Siberia, be it in a Jeep or a Lada.

Our lead editorial today exposes the fact that three-fourths of all Russian citizens would like to leave the country if they could.  Who in his right mind wouldn’t want to, when being ruled by a repugnant reptile like Vladimir Putin?

Nobody, but then Russians are not in their right minds.