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Pasta Becomes the Latest Target of Censorship in the New Russia

Deputy accused of defaming military while watching Putin speak

B Kean
3 min readMar 3, 2023
Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash

Samara is a mid-sized city in central Russia. In the days of the czars, there was a thriving German community which explains why so many buildings look as if they could be in some provincial German city. German absolutism remains.

Trying to penetrate the Samara market with new products was always next to impossible. Whether it be beer, salted snacks, ice cream, or juice, whatever was first on that market was always going to be number one. Take communism, it’s still popular there.

Mikhail Abdalkin is a communist living in Samara. Loyal to a fault, the locals don’t tolerate fools. While Putin is popular with most of the residents, people expect him to be straight-talking and honest with them. If he stops being that, they will abandon him.

Abdalkin, a deputy of the Samara Regional Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, recently received an administrative fine, was officially censured, and will be further investigated for “discrediting the Russian army.”

What did Abdalkin do you ask? He hung noodles from his ears while watching Putin make the “State of the Union” speech on February 22.

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B Kean
B Kean

Written by B Kean

The past holds the answers to today’s problems. “Be curious, not judgmental,” at least until you have all the facts. Think and stop watching cable news.

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