Member-only story
A Nation of Ideological Schizophrenics
Only the soul-less can keep up with the Kremlin’s ever-changing narrative
Thousands gathered at Moscow’s famous Luzhniki Stadium. Many of the gathered “patriots,” and I only know this from how these things were organized in the past, were bussed in, and even offered a small monetary reward for attending.
Putin, dressed in a spiffy black parka, which did a great job covering up his bulletproof vest, ambled Trump-like — remember how he went down the steps after his West Point speech? — out onto the stage and for 210 seconds regaled the crowd with a not-so-long list of reasons why Russia is the greatest and how glorious its soldiers lying face down in the mud are. The crowd pretended to love it and all went as well as would be expected if we were on the set of the classic Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show.
Russia, infamous for creating Potemkin villages which are pretty much like painting the grass green at army bases on the days of big inspections, is now not dedicated to taking care of its returning handicapped veterans, but to ensuring that The Putin Show functions at its highest production level. One has to ask, for whom was the big, stupid show of faux-patriotism in the Luzhniki stadium organized?
