Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Whining Russians


Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was not to be outdone in the whining competition. He sent Plushenko a telegram — A telegram? No wonder they lost the Cold War — in which Putin, in his new, self-appointed role as Supreme Olympian, informed his soured countryman that his silver medal was “as good as gold” because Plushenko had “performed the most accomplished program on the Vancouver ice.” Russian state media joined the parade, in tones that during the Andropov period had been reserved for denunciations of the warmongering arch-fiend Ronald Reagan.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this boorish behavior — to put it gently — has a lot to do with the fact that, as a political culture, Russia has never begun to come to grips with the legacy of 74 years of Communism. Lenin’s mummy — the ghastly relic of one of the 20th century’s greatest mass murderers — remains on display for the veneration of the obtuse and the confused in Red Square. Parades celebrating the birthday of Stalin, whose homicidal record topped Lenin’s, are not uncommon. The NKVD/KGB archives, briefly opened under Boris Yeltsin, are closed to researchers. Opposition journalists are murdered with impunity, while the state dominates the mass media. History is rewritten in order to mask, even deny, the horrors of the Gulag system (which, as Anne Applebaum demonstrated in her Pulitzer Prize–winning book, was not an accidental feature of Stalinism but an essential component of Stalinist “economics”).

Click here for complete article.

Source: National Review

5 comments:

John A said...

Great post and the picture simply says it all.

Vasyl Pawlowsky said...

Good job on the picture. Last week as I watched the Men's skeleton competition I of course was rooting for the Canadian - but deep down inside I was also rooting for the Latvian to beat the Russia. Glad he did. And today day when I watched actual sport and not that judged athleticism that done on ice - but the Cross Country Skiing 40km Relay I was extremely happy at Russia's poor showing.

Vasyl Pawlowsky said...

Great picture!

Last week during the Men's Skeleton final I was happy to see little Latvia come up with a silver behind Canada and in front of Russia.

Today I was also happy to see Canada beat Russia in a sport - and not a judged athletic performance performed on ice. It was the 40km Cross Country Relay. Somehow, I am sure that those sportsmen won't be whiners like Zhennia..

Andrij (aka Andy) said...

Some pictures are worth a thousand words and some pictures are worth a thousand rubles ... this one is worth both :)

Wait a minute - 1000 rubles is only 35 bucks !!! Let's make this picture worth $1000 !!!

Great job - Putin missed his calling !!!

Ukemonde said...

And CANADA doing a job on the Russians last night in Hockey, really put a clincher on all this. Now they can go home (Russian's) and plan on how they are going to cheat at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. GO CANADA GO!!!!