It’s fascinating to watch this community of crooks and thieves keep stepping on the same rake and apparently enjoying the handle smacking them in the face. Once before, they themselves helped turn the meme “United Russia is the party of crooks and thieves” into a sensation. Now they’re making sure that Putin’s embarrassing booing incident at Olimpiyskiy becomes known to every person in the country, from the elderly to infants. And not just known — practically hammered into people’s heads. So yes, he got booed. A symbolic event, of course, but an expected one. Putin’s approval rating is 30–40%, depending on the region. His rating keeps falling, while his disapproval rating keeps rising. He is no longer the president of the majority. All of this is quite carefully and sensibly described in the CSR report “Driving Forces and Prospects for Political Transformation in Russia”. I recommend reading it, and I’d remind you that CSR is the very same center that prepared Putin’s first program and, in many ways, gave him the popularity whose remnants are still propping him up now. I’d put it more simply: Putin has been in power for 12 years, since 1999. For the first 4 years he did both good and bad things. A lot of sensible things. For another 4 years he did absolutely nothing, just trembled over his approval rating. For the last 4 years he has been interested only in stealing together with his cronies and their relatives, and in nothing else. That’s where the booing comes from. So, back to the rake smacking them in the face. 22,000 people were at Olimpiyskiy and saw and heard everything; millions watched the live broadcast; the internet is already full of footage from different sections of the arena, clearly showing what happened. In the next couple of weeks, five to seven million people will watch it. it’s the top story on the “big Runet” (the Russian-language internet), not just in some cozy little LiveJournal bubble:
So what are the Kremlin crooks doing? Instead of quietly keeping their mouths shut, they: cut this segment out of the news broadcasts (which, fine, is at least understandable); mute that moment in the RTR rebroadcast (!!!!); put forward explanations: a) it was whistling and “oooooooh” sounds of support. A perfect classic: “Are they shouting ‘Boooo’ or ‘Buuuutin’?” b) the fans were booing the defeated Monson. As proof: “If you went to sporting events more often, you’d know that booing the loser is an old sports tradition.” c) the people in the stands were whistling because they weren’t being allowed to go to the bathroom. and to support these versions, they roll out the good old TV journalists, trying so hard it makes you fear for the safety of their stomach lining. And what do we get as a result? Exactly this: in a month, old ladies sitting on a bench in a village in the Ryazan region will know every detail: “Mikhalna, Putin really made a fool of himself. Out of idleness and boredom he went off to perform at the circus, lost there to some kind of Pug, got booed for it. And then the monster got offended and banned everyone from going to the toilet.” And as a bonus: if you look closely at the well-known video, then at the 28-second mark you can spot a strange character with a beard and a shaved temple
Well, well! Why, it’s the billionaire son himself. Sergei Matvienko, whose fortune, made from St. Petersburg real estate, is of course in no way connected to the work of his mother — the governor of St. Petersburg. A great admirer of plant-based chemical substances. So Putin can be congratulated. If yesterday he had said, “Joining us in the ring is Sergei Matvienko,” they’d now have to be explaining the ancient sporting tradition of hurling broken-off seats at the most respected and beloved people. P.S. The headline isn’t mine. I plagiarized it from one of the comments.