This post is dedicated to today’s first conference of the All-Russia People’s Front (ONF) on the theme “Building Social Justice,” and to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s speech there. One link is worth a million words:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/common_info/show?notificationId=5766460 There’s just no way our prosecutors will be able to Build Social Justice unless they buy themselves a car for 6 million rubles.
From some other, simpler car, it would be hard to screech, “I am offended for the state!” (a well-known patriotic catchphrase), while putting on a stern patriotic expression. Judging by the technical specifications, it’s a BMW 7 Series.
Nice car. We’ll drive straight into Social Justice in it. And so will the 16% of the country’s population living below the poverty line. Probably. And for the hundred-millionth time, let me remind you that in the State Duma, RosPil’s bill banning officials from buying cars costing more than 2 million rubles has been gathering dust for nearly two years now. It has been supported by every faction except United Russia. They categorically refuse to support our bill—they say it would destroy Social Justice for members of the “party of crooks and thieves” (a derogatory nickname for United Russia). I never thought I’d be citing Lukashenko as an example, but he, for instance, has even banned state-owned enterprises (not just officials) from buying cars costing more than 25,000 euros. But that’s Lukashenko, whereas here, as V.V. Putin rightly remarked today at the congress of his, excuse me, “Front”: Life is more diverse and more complicated than any plans people write. It would seem that 99.9% of Russian citizens are ready to support our bill, but life, you see, is more complicated and more diverse. Life demands a BMW for 6 million rubles. And Mercedeses too, for diversity.
People