Yesterday I came across a news item saying that musician Butman, a member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party, would bravely travel to Crimea, even though the U.S. State Department had asked him not to go there.
Strange, I thought—why is the State Department pestering a United Russia party member with such improper requests? It turns out that Butman, the United Russia member, is a U.S. citizen; he says so himself in an interview posted on the official website:
If he obtained citizenship through naturalization, then he must have gone through a certain procedure. Out of curiosity, I went to Wikipedia and read about that procedure.
So, just so you understand: this is the oath Monsieur Butman took when he asked for the United States of America to become his new homeland:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God.”
That’s how it is. A member of the Supreme Council of Russia’s ruling party has officially renounced loyalty and allegiance to Russia, swearing to defend the United States with arms in hand.
And yet somehow, you’re still the “foreign agent.”