The oil pumped out of your Western Siberia hasn’t gone to waste. Nor is it just sitting there idly, turned into oligarch money in Swiss bank accounts. A tiny part of it will become salty spray, sturdy sails, the joy of victory, and everything else that you, a Russian citizen, have seen in an Old Spice deodorant commercial:
Sweeeeet. They’ll even put the logo on the yacht’s sail.
You’ll be able to point and say: there’s the team sponsored by Putin’s oil-trading company, in which his stake was held by an old friend—Genka “Gangrene” Timchenko—and a very old friend—Petka Kolbin. Competing for the famous America’s Cup.
I find it delightful that all this is happening right now. At a time when we’re being told every day that we’re such bitter enemies with America, such enemies that nuclear war is just around the corner. Everyone will be issued 300 grams of bread (about 10.6 oz), which they can eat in a comfortable bomb shelter.
Well, God willing, they’ll postpone launching the first warhead-carrying missiles until the regatta is over. You can’t really start a war before the champagne has been uncorked.