And Minkin's letters to the president. Russia
The author of incriminating articles about corruption in Russia and “Letters to the President,” Alexander Minkin, is in Kazan these days. Local officials may not reach for validol just yet: the famous publicist and theater critic’s interest is focused on the Opera Festival named after. F. Chaliapin. The VK correspondent did not miss the chance to ask the journalist a few questions when she met him on the sidelines of the theater.
- Alexander Viktorovich, what are your impressions of Chaliapinsky?
The impressions are huge, I watched “Nabucco” twice (with different casts). Everything was captivating: powerful drama, theme, scenography. This is a complete, stunning piece. The choir sounds great! Currently, I think he will “beat” anyone. It would be necessary to compare how many choristers there are in the Kazan Opera and in the Bolshoi Theater choir. Apparently, Kazan residents take quality, not quantity!
I’m looking forward to “Porgy and Bess,” which I listened to earlier here in Kazan. And it was so amazing that now, having seen the performance in the festival program, I realized that I had to go! I regret that I started going to the festival in Kazan late, although the first invitations began to arrive about 10 years ago. I made the excuse of lack of time, and I admit, I was skeptic. Another festival?.. And I’m not an opera specialist, but a drama specialist. Three years ago, I was finally persuaded to go to Kazan by the artist Viktor Gerasimenko, who elegantly designed a number of performances in Moscow. I arrived and was amazed at the level of the theater. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I think that today this is the best opera house in Russia.
- What besides the theater can attract your attention in Kazan? Once the writer Pyotr Weil shared with me that he gets to know a new city using the “theater - bookstore - bazaar” scheme.
To the market - perhaps in Tashkent, Tbilisi or Yerevan, but there I am only interested in spices. But the museum - yes! Just not ethnography - rusty arrowheads, shards of jugs... It is much more interesting to get acquainted with the gallery, the paintings of the masters. I’m going to the Kazan Museum of Fine Arts, but not to judge, but just to admire. Journalism, literature and dramatic theater - I feel entitled to speak in these areas.
- Surely you are most often asked how the main addressee reacts to your “Letters to the President”?
Putin himself has never answered me in writing: he cannot do this for a number of reasons. If he starts answering me, the others will scream with terrible force - why does Minkin say yes, but not us? The second reason, more important: for the most part he has nothing to answer. Because these letters contain direct accusations. I wrote: “What were you thinking when you appointed Serdyukov as Minister of Defense? There was a dossier in front of you - you knew everything about this person in advance, but you kept him in office for five years. Was it only at the end of the fifth year that he “acted into mischief”?” Well, what will he answer to this?
Another question asked more than once in letters: why do you keep this particular person as prime minister? Is he really the best in all of Russia? And if not, then it is your duty, especially in times of crisis, to give us the best...
Various people, including himself, said that the president reads my “letters” - we talked to him twice. And Churov, who headed the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, said that when he was at Putin’s house in Novo-Ogarevo, he saw “Letters to the President” on a shelf in his office.
Sometimes the Kremlin’s reaction is harsh and the newspaper gets very hurt. You can ask the editor of Moskovsky Komsomolets Pavel Gusev - in the presidential administration they stamped their feet on him and swore at him, demanding that “this scoundrel” be fired, that is, me. So - they read.
-Have you ever had a positive reaction to criticism?
There were cases when, after the “letter,” a positive decision was made in the Kremlin. They just never say, “The newspaper told us, thank you very much.” This is humiliation for them.
For example, in 2008, I demanded that the wording in the pensioner’s certificate be brought into line with the Constitution of Russia, which states “Russian citizens have the right to an old-age pension...”, whereas the certificates read “old age.” I turned to the president: “Mister, you don’t want to get an old man’s certificate at 60 years old, and your wife at 55 years old - an old woman’s certificate?” They weren't divorced then. It wouldn’t cost the budget a penny, but it’s so important from the point of view of attitude towards people. I appealed to the Constitutional Court, from which I received a completely idiotic, vile reply. It seems that the certificates have been cancelled, now they don’t write anything - neither about age, nor about old age. In general, they all bore me to death. And these “letters” too...
- But you are letting your soul out in the new project “Mute Onegin”! Judging by the number of views, it has a high rating. Who is the audience for this research?
An interesting question for me: who reads the chapters of “Mute Onegin” and what do they think? I accidentally heard from one young lady: “Oh, we at GITIS are discussing “Mute Onegin” with terrible force!” - and was very happy. If the paper version of MK is read mainly by people 45 years of age and older, then the site is visited by relatively young people. Let’s say each chapter is read by more than 100 thousand on MK and another fifty thousand on the Ekho Moskvy website. I don't think these are old people. But if I had written “Mute Onegin” 20 years ago, there would have been much more readers. In 20 years, 40 million people died in Russia! Roughly speaking, two million a year. Yes, the population is approximately stable - some died, some were born. The problem is that readers die, and button pokers are born.
- Why is your Onegin mute?
But Onegin doesn’t even say anything in Pushkin! This is a shock: the main character utters several phrases throughout the entire action of the novel - “Learn to control yourself. Not everyone, like me, will understand you...” In the final chapter, where he breaks up with Tatyana, he didn’t say a single word! Tatyana has a house full of relatives: sister, mother, father’s grave with an inscription, an aunt in Moscow, all with names and habits. And Onegin has no mother, no father (half a line about him), no brother, no sister. And why? 10 parts have been published where these questions are understood and posed. You will find out the answers in the sequel.
- A real detective!
The topic is multi-layered, I’ve been writing the text for seven years now. I was afraid that the first chapters would turn off some readers because they contained frivolity. But Pushkin’s novel is structured this way: in its first part there are continuous adulteries and seductions. Pushkin writes about Onegin that he did not let anyone through - neither young virgins, nor married ladies, and still remained on friendly terms with their husbands. Everything is frank, and a quarter of my texts consist of quotes. But in the minds of many people, “Eugene Onegin” is something sacred. And that means I’m encroaching. Some perceive my publications as an insult to the feelings of believers in Pushkin. In one of the chapters, I cite the grave characteristic that the director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Engelhardt, wrote about him in his diary: “... Tender and youthful feelings were humiliated in him by an imagination desecrated by all the erotic works of French literature, which he knew almost by heart upon entering the Lyceum, like worthy acquisition of initial education.”
Please note, this is not a denunciation, but it makes sense that Engelhardt is facing some kind of monstrous brute...
- And cognitive dissonance arises.
Pushkin responded to some critic after the release of the first chapter of Eugene Onegin: “... you are free to judge the entire work by reading only the beginning.” I can say the same thing to my readers: you are free to say that this is nonsense and superficiality when you have only read the first chapter. Let us console moralists: do not stop reading, even if the beginning seemed indecent. To be continued, amazing things will be revealed further.
Alexander Minkin
Letters to the President
Preface
You have in your hands the history of our Motherland. And not the last two or three years, but all of it.
You have in your hands correspondence with the emperor. They call him president, but this is a formality. And elections are a formality, not democracy at all.
They chose Roman emperors, they chose Russian tsars (Godunov, Romanov, Rurik were also chosen by someone when they were invited).
One such election is described by Pushkin:
PEOPLE (on my knees. Howling and crying)
Oh, have mercy, our father! rule over us!
Be our father, our king.
This is the election of Boris Godunov. Here are the results announced:
The crown is behind him! he is a king! he agreed!
Boris is our king! long live Boris!
This jubilation is so similar to Yeltsin’s election (for the first term) that in the early 1990s one was tempted to quote these lines in almost every note.
But we know how Pushkin’s tragedy ends. Or have you forgotten?.. Everyone remembers the last remark "The people are silent." However, a minute before this silence, before this cemetery silence, a rather lively scene takes place:
People, people! to the Kremlin! to the royal chambers!
Go! knit Borisov's puppy!
PEOPLE (rushes through the crowd)
To knit! Stoke! Long live Dimitri!
May the family of Boris Godunov perish!
This people, which, in Pushkin’s terrible expression, “is rushing in a crowd,” is the same. He begged Boris to become king. And now he’s ready to drown an innocent teenager. Then, of course, the people will remain silent in horror, but first they still want to drown him.
400 years have passed, the people remain the same. All that remained was to wait. Soon everything came true.
It’s incredibly interesting: to recognize in today (in the new! in the seemingly unique!) the classic yesterday and the day before yesterday is an eternity.
Life is full of mysteries. We don't notice them, we don't realize them. We live inside riddles, but we don’t understand, we don’t know the answers.
Life has changed fantastically: mobile phones, computers, we fly into space. But you open the most modern life safety textbook, and there are detailed instructions: how to crawl on your bellies correctly. Modern children, computerized children of the 21st century, learn to crawl, like before Peter the Great, before Ivan the Terrible, before Tsar Gorokh, and they probably think that “in the Plastun way” from the word “plasticine”, not knowing that there were such Cossacks-Plastuns, hunting Turks on the outskirts of the Russian Empire (where is now sovereign Ukraine).
...The emperor has little idea of the life of his subjects.
He is a human being and can get sick like everyone else. He has two arms, two legs - like everyone else. But he never goes to the pharmacy. Doesn't know prices. For him there are no concepts of “closed for lunch”, “closed for registration”, “sanitary day”. And most importantly: when he takes the medicine (by mouth, like everyone else), he is sure (and we are sure) that it is real. And 60% of our medicines in pharmacies (and according to some sources – 80%) are fake, that is, they do not cure, but poison.
Of course, he seems to himself to be a genius; Well, it’s no coincidence that he became emperor. And - especially - not by the will of a runaway, arrogant, vile bastard. ...Or is it God's finger? The last option is much nicer.
What you are reading now and what you feel at the same time, roughly speaking, is called thinking. People sometimes like to think.
It's like a crossword puzzle, only more interesting. You solve the riddles of Heaven and Fate, and do not write letters in squares, trying to guess some plant with three letters.
And people also love to have their thoughts said out loud. And if they suddenly come across their own thoughts in a book or newspaper, they don’t feel so lonely, they even feel happy, and they shout to their wife: “Klava! That's what I told you yesterday! Look, these are exactly my words!”
That's all it takes: guess his thoughts and write them down correctly. And then you receive letters from readers, and there (in almost every one): “we are ready to subscribe to your every word.”
It is not my words that they are ready to subscribe to, but their own thoughts.
No. 1 “Letters to the President”
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! When you took office (it was a long time ago), you said: “In Russia, the president is responsible for everything!” This is actually true. And it doesn’t matter whether these were sincere words or just an election slogan (propaganda).
But it seems that there is no one next to you who would dare to ask the unpleasant question: “I am responsible for everything” - to whom?
In front of the people? Before God? Before your own conscience?
In front of the people - of course not. Under our election system (dishonest propaganda, dishonest counting), under our managed democracy, we do not count: how many people came, how many were “for”. And in 2008, only you will decide: to leave or to stay? How Nazarbayev, Karimov, Lukashenko, Turkmenbashi remained.
Before God - this is if you not only really believe (which no one can know), but also keep the commandments (which is almost impossible for a politician).
Before your conscience - well, this is the simplest thing. Adults (especially those from the USSR, and even more so with such a difficult biography) are amazingly able to negotiate with their own conscience.
And if so, if there is no higher authority that can (and has the right) to demand accountability, then “responsibility” is an empty phrase.
Favorite expression of the “right”: “We have never been afraid to take responsibility!” It is in vain that they are proud of this, because responsibility never came to them. Despite all the crimes. And if responsibility does not come, why be afraid of it?
Sometimes we see a picture of responsibility.
After Kadyrov’s assassination, you flew to Chechnya. After the tragedy in Nazran, we flew to Ingushetia. These flights are a big risk, perhaps even unacceptable for the President of Russia. These flights are a demonstration of personal courage. But what does this give?
Nothing to do. Fly secretly and with super security around your country, replacing politics with personal courage... It would be better if your subordinates delivered Basayev alive to Moscow. Exactly alive, because he knows so much about our politicians, businessmen...
It is believed that a journalist should appeal to readers and public opinion. But we have a special country - there are readers, but there is no public opinion. More precisely, ours is small and sick: extremely irritated, but quiet, swears only in the kitchen, in the smoking room...
People buy a newspaper, read it - that is, they do something real (measured in rubles, minutes, copies). What about public opinion? Show it in real action.
Everyone argued that “Namedni” is the best TV show. On Sundays, a million people watched it in Moscow alone. And a good million - not homeless people, not prostitutes... A million politically literate, highly conscious, smart, educated. And even these conscious ones did not take to the streets in defense of “Namedni”. No one.
Yes, they were not called to the rally, they were not promised a free rock concert and a cap. But a normal citizen must go out himself. In Prague, every third citizen came out to stand up for TV (in Moscow this would be three million). In London, more than a million came out against the war in Iraq (not at all at Hussein’s call). In Moscow, in August 1991, people themselves went to defend their beliefs. Against tanks! After all, no one knew whether the army would shoot or not.
But it turned out that the most sincere and honest, defending their convictions in 1991, ensured their quick ruin. The power for which they risked their lives turned towards them as Asian...
The sincere, brave and honest were discouraged for a long time from defending something there. But the insincere and dishonest never had such a desire before. Then there was silence.
Some turn to the attorney general to solve their problems. But even if you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, sometimes cannot reach him by phone, then, of course, for a journalist this is simply impossible.
In addition, the Attorney General is not elected by the people. This means that he bears no responsibility (even theoretical) to us. And if so, then it is useless to cry.
To the deputies? There are no deputies of mine in the Duma. But if there were...
The Duma, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, this is now... I won’t say the harsh words “gang”, “brothel” - especially since gangs, although evil, have some free will: they decide for themselves who to rob and kill.
Duma is, to put it mildly, chocolate-covered raisins. The owner can eat it himself, treat it, or store it in the closet. But raisins can’t make decisions, and if they also covered them with chocolate...
So, only you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, can do anything (on a state scale), or decide anything.
And a Russian journalist, in order to achieve something, has to turn to you and only you.
Send a letter by mail? You know better than me that it won’t arrive. That is, it will reach the senior assistant of the junior janitor. And we will receive an official response: “Thank you, your opinion will be taken into account.”
“Taking into account” – what is it? Recorded in the accounting book and archived?
A letter published in a newspaper, of course, does not oblige you to respond. Well, what if... After all, we personally don’t need anything from you. And since it’s nothing personal, our dialogue will be important for the country.
Mastak | 03:04 | 0 comments
Mr. President, everything was very good(even better than always). And the countless questions of the people, and your lengthy answers; and we, watching TV, didn’t understand why we were laughing. It was difficult to even write it down. But I managed to write down something:
“The government is not finalizing... The money is stuck... Return and pay!.. Alarming signals... The point is not a dispute, but a discussion (for the life of me, I don’t see the difference)... Ordinary citizens are closely watching... We need to focus on ordinary citizens (it would be better to focus on Nobel laureates)... Demand from all levels of government must be strict...”
Perhaps it was funny because you spoke like a person who had just taken power in a loose and almost ruined country. But you have been in power for 13 years! Like Yeltsin and Gorbachev combined. Longer than Khrushchev. And all these were eras...
You were asked about the poor performance of the government. You answered: “The government hasn’t even worked for a year yet! We must let them realize themselves!”
Mr. President, how could you not laugh? Were the ministers born yesterday? fell from the moon? Are they recruits, or what?
In order not to list everyone, we will briefly consider only the prime minister. He commanded Gazprom, was the head of the presidential administration, deputy prime minister of the government, president of Russia - the man went through everything. What do we have with the goose? Transfer? Zero ppm, skewed time and his amazing (and, as it seems to us, groundless) ambition, as if his words are “cast in granite.”
We didn't laugh anymore. From our point of view, these people have realized themselves a long time ago. Who will believe that you still harbor hope that they will bring Russia out of its ugly state and at least somehow reduce our gap with developed countries.
You continue to console people by telling them how much their salaries have increased. But is it just about money? Even cattle need more than just food. Even a cow needs affection (to give milk).
People are afraid of officials, they hate them for their torment. People are afraid of the police. People don't see justice. Small children (especially those for whom there was no place in kindergarten) see endless and terrible violence on TV and obscene talk shows all day long. And when they grow up, you, Mr. President, along with the people, are indignant that they urinate on the monuments to those who died for the Motherland and fry barbecue on the Eternal Flame. Great Patriotic War veteran Abram Lvovich Ekhilevsky asked you about this. Everyone felt ashamed and sad. And your answer: “Everything must be done to...” Of course, it is necessary, but these words are of no use...
Children hear soul-saving speeches from veterans and priests, God willing, 30 minutes a week. And they watch TV several hours a day. And don't you see who's winning? And are you hoping for the “right textbook”?
Will a penny increase in salary save you from a moral catastrophe??
These bonuses do not even save people from primitive poverty. You said that housing and communal services tariffs were supposed to rise by 6%, and you said it live! — they showed the bills, which show that electricity prices (from December to February) tripled. 300%! This is 50 times more than the planned 6%. The springboards are resting. Moreover, ski jumps are only in Sochi, and electricity is everywhere. And you say that the government did not have time to realize itself?
You held your 11th meeting with the people and repeated: “it’s not regulated”, “we need to sort it out”...
You were asked about Chubais’s activities, and you began to shield him: they say he made a mistake with privatization under the influence of CIA agents. And under whose influence did he make a mistake with the loans-for-shares auctions? And under whose influence - with the reform that destroyed the unified energy system? Now he's wrong about nanotechnology. He's been wrong for 22 years now, it's too much. And if it’s true that the CIA was in charge of making mistakes, then where did your Lubyanka, Mr. President, look?
Mr. President, as you know, among other things, our mail is not working well. It turns out that not all of these letters reach you. The recent one (about the conversation with the people) didn’t get through. Not in time for your direct line. And it said:
“Mr. President, questions are now pouring in on you. If I were a young, strong girl, I would write everything I think on my belly, I would bare my torso, and look, you would answer. But there are a lot of problems here. First, we need to get close to you. Abroad, where you are hanging out with some Merkel, this is still possible. But in Russia it’s out of the question.
Secondly, if you write small, you won’t have time to read it in a second, and the next moment the letter will be on the floor under the bodies of the guards. And if you write large, then not every story can be expressed in three letters.
Thirdly, you signed a law banning swearing in the media. But the question: “is the skin of a newspaper employee part of the mass media?” has not yet been resolved by lawyers.”
The most elegant thing you said was your joke: “How do you distinguish between wives and lovers? By smell? According to the age?" And the most interesting thing is about the two letters from Berezovsky that you received. But more on that later.
In parting, thank you very much for finally recognizing the truth of these letters. We wrote to you many times about your December TV conferences: they say, it’s not very good that the president sits in the warmth, and the people in the squares stand in the cold (for hours!).
Now everyone was warm.
Alexander Minkin
Letters to the President
Preface
You have in your hands the history of our Motherland. And not the last two or three years, but all of it.
You have in your hands correspondence with the emperor. They call him president, but this is a formality. And elections are a formality, not democracy at all.
They chose Roman emperors, they chose Russian tsars (Godunov, Romanov, Rurik were also chosen by someone when they were invited).
One such election is described by Pushkin:
PEOPLE (on my knees. Howling and crying)
Oh, have mercy, our father! rule over us!
Be our father, our king.
This is the election of Boris Godunov. Here are the results announced:
The crown is behind him! he is a king! he agreed!
Boris is our king! long live Boris!
This jubilation is so similar to Yeltsin’s election (for the first term) that in the early 1990s one was tempted to quote these lines in almost every note.
But we know how Pushkin’s tragedy ends. Or have you forgotten?.. Everyone remembers the last remark "The people are silent." However, a minute before this silence, before this cemetery silence, a rather lively scene takes place:
People, people! to the Kremlin! to the royal chambers!
Go! knit Borisov's puppy!
PEOPLE (rushes through the crowd)
To knit! Stoke! Long live Dimitri!
May the family of Boris Godunov perish!
This people, which, in Pushkin’s terrible expression, “is rushing in a crowd,” is the same. He begged Boris to become king. And now he’s ready to drown an innocent teenager. Then, of course, the people will remain silent in horror, but first they still want to drown him.
400 years have passed, the people remain the same. All that remained was to wait. Soon everything came true.
It’s incredibly interesting: to recognize in today (in the new! in the seemingly unique!) the classic yesterday and the day before yesterday is an eternity.
Life is full of mysteries. We don't notice them, we don't realize them. We live inside riddles, but we don’t understand, we don’t know the answers.
Life has changed fantastically: mobile phones, computers, we fly into space. But you open the most modern life safety textbook, and there are detailed instructions: how to crawl on your bellies correctly. Modern children, computerized children of the 21st century, learn to crawl, like before Peter the Great, before Ivan the Terrible, before Tsar Gorokh, and they probably think that “in the Plastun way” from the word “plasticine”, not knowing that there were such Cossacks-Plastuns, hunting Turks on the outskirts of the Russian Empire (where is now sovereign Ukraine).
...The emperor has little idea of the life of his subjects.
He is a human being and can get sick like everyone else. He has two arms, two legs - like everyone else. But he never goes to the pharmacy. Doesn't know prices. For him there are no concepts of “closed for lunch”, “closed for registration”, “sanitary day”. And most importantly: when he takes the medicine (by mouth, like everyone else), he is sure (and we are sure) that it is real. And 60% of our medicines in pharmacies (and according to some sources – 80%) are fake, that is, they do not cure, but poison.
Of course, he seems to himself to be a genius; Well, it’s no coincidence that he became emperor. And - especially - not by the will of a runaway, arrogant, vile bastard. ...Or is it God's finger? The last option is much nicer.
What you are reading now and what you feel at the same time, roughly speaking, is called thinking. People sometimes like to think.
It's like a crossword puzzle, only more interesting. You solve the riddles of Heaven and Fate, and do not write letters in squares, trying to guess some plant with three letters.
And people also love to have their thoughts said out loud. And if they suddenly come across their own thoughts in a book or newspaper, they don’t feel so lonely, they even feel happy, and they shout to their wife: “Klava! That's what I told you yesterday! Look, these are exactly my words!”
That's all it takes: guess his thoughts and write them down correctly. And then you receive letters from readers, and there (in almost every one): “we are ready to subscribe to your every word.”
It is not my words that they are ready to subscribe to, but their own thoughts.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! When you took office (it was a long time ago), you said: “In Russia, the president is responsible for everything!” This is actually true. And it doesn’t matter whether these were sincere words or just an election slogan (propaganda).
But it seems that there is no one next to you who would dare to ask the unpleasant question: “I am responsible for everything” - to whom?
In front of the people? Before God? Before your own conscience?
In front of the people - of course not. Under our election system (dishonest propaganda, dishonest counting), under our managed democracy, we do not count: how many people came, how many were “for”. And in 2008, only you will decide: to leave or to stay? How Nazarbayev, Karimov, Lukashenko, Turkmenbashi remained.
Before God - this is if you not only really believe (which no one can know), but also keep the commandments (which is almost impossible for a politician).
Before your conscience - well, this is the simplest thing. Adults (especially those from the USSR, and even more so with such a difficult biography) are amazingly able to negotiate with their own conscience.
And if so, if there is no higher authority that can (and has the right) to demand accountability, then “responsibility” is an empty phrase.
People, Vladimir Vladimirovich, are very interested in what you really think about this.
P.S. Immediately, from the first letter, the address “you” is capitalized. Readers noticed this, some were outraged. But there really is a problem here. The rise of the pronoun in the Bible, in the Gospel, refers exclusively to God. “You” with a capital is the officially accepted norm among officials. And in private correspondence, it is often a sign of a distant acquaintance rather than a sign of high respect.
Addressing you would look like unacceptable, repulsive, stupid familiarity, and addressing you would look like a request, like observing court etiquette. Then it’s better to follow the advice of Starodum from “The Minor” by Fonvizin:
OLD THOUGHT. I speak without ranks. The ranks begin, and sincerity ceases... My father raised me in the way of that time, but I did not find the need to re-educate myself. He served Peter the Great. Then one person was called you, not you. Back then they didn’t know how to infect so many people that everyone would consider themselves to be many...
No. 2 New life
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! You live somewhere on Rublevskoye Highway. We know this because Rublyovka is blocked twice a day (but we hardly complain).
Maybe you came across the magazine “On Rublyovka”? It says about itself that it is distributed in all sorts of elite places: Barvikha, Zhukovki, local restaurants and clubs - along your entire route. So maybe they’ll throw it in your hallway too.
It is believed that this magazine reflects the new style of the new life of the new Russians. This also applies to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, because your ministers, deputies and senators also all live there, eat, shop and play - that is, in their lifestyle they are not much different from the oligarchs. Unless they pay, and these receive invitations.
What worries the whole country is not reflected in this magazine. Not a word about the war, not a word about taking away benefits. None of this threatens his readers. They live on another planet.
This magazine published an interview with the artist who once played Ostrovsky’s dowry in the film “Cruel Romance” (where Mikhalkov dishonored her). The artist is asked:
– What characterization would you give to our president?
The artist replies:
– When Putin first became president, I immediately really liked him... He seems like a cool guy. He has the instincts of a young man to whom nothing is alien, and this is very pleasant. This is not an antique that mumbles something under its breath and quietly moves around with its hated old wife. He is mobile, athletic, and not fat, which is very important for the leader of the country. The president shouldn't be fat. Fat means you don’t eat right and have health problems. This is not the image for a leader.
Agree, Vladimir Vladimirovich, all this is very frank. She says she liked you as soon as you became president. This means she hasn’t seen you point-blank before. Even when you were the chief of the FSB, and then the prime minister. Few people admit that they love a position (wallet) rather than a person, but such recognition is all the more valuable.
Instincts are a very slippery place. What are “the instincts of the young, to whom nothing is alien”? What is “nothing is alien” from the position of instincts? Regarding the fact that an old wife means a hated wife, this is also very bold. Sounds like advice to change more often...
Healthy instincts, excellent fitness – all this is important, the artist is right. But they asked her for a description of the president, and there was no intelligence, honor, justice, kindness...
Alas, there are ladies who tend to confuse the manager with the manufacturer. While the ladies are discussing this among themselves - for God's sake.
But the magazine offers us a new style, a new way of thinking, a new attitude to life. He shows “how to”, “how to do it right”.
They will say: an artist doesn’t count, she’s a trifle, you can’t judge high society by her. But scientists, using one rotten bone, can restore the appearance of a prehistoric monster (lizard).
Eh, it's not about the artist. If her way of thinking were ridiculed or even subjected to the slightest criticism... No, this way of thinking was presented as an example. The interview occupies a central place in the magazine, apparently coinciding with trends.
And the arguments about what a real president should be are placed at the end of the article. As your famous colleague (Stirlitz) taught: the last phrase is remembered.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, it seems to us that in a normal country, normal citizens should have everything the other way around.
People want to know what you think about it.
No. 3 Whoever I want, I give it to him
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Pensioners are being deprived of their remaining benefits (some have already been taken away). It’s a shame to see how alarmed they are over their miserable pennies.
They are offered not confiscation, but compensation - that is, a full replacement (compensatio, lat. – equalize, compensate). Judging by the amounts promised by the government, it is clear that medicines and transport do not cost that much. And because of such nonsense there is such a noise.
On the other hand, if benefits are really so cheap, why take them away? Why irritate, why bring millions of old people to heart attacks?
And if you take it away, then from everyone.
There is a large group of young, rich, healthy and strong citizens who receive incomparably greater benefits than the old and sick. And if we take away the benefits, then they are huge even for the strong ones.
But they don’t take it away from them. They are added. I wonder where their supplement comes from?
In our first letter to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we drew your attention to the difference between a pensioner and a minister. A pensioner receives one hundred dollars a month, a minister - three thousand. (The point was that when the promised doubling of GDP takes place, a pensioner will apparently receive two hundred dollars a month, and a minister - six thousand. As a result, the difference in their standard of living will be even better.)
You didn't answer, but there were a lot of responses. And only one letter was in defense of the ministers. They say that a journalist, like Sharikov, counts money in someone else’s pocket, but in reality, six thousand dollars a month is not so much.
It's really not much for a minister. There are countries where they receive more, and others where they receive less. But with us, we repeat, it’s not about the amount, but about the difference between the minister and the pensioner. Thirty times.
The money in the minister's pocket is not strangers to us. As long as the minister pockets his salary and legal (very large) increases, this is our money, from our taxes. And when he puts a bribe there, then again it’s our money. Because in order to bribe the minister, a businessman raises prices (for bread, for gasoline, for clothing, for medicine) and still more than rips off all his expenses from us. To give to the official and to keep for yourself.
Recently, senior officials' salaries were increased many times over. (It’s a pity that, for the beauty of the experiment, this was not combined in time with the withdrawal of benefits.) The minister had about six hundred, but became three thousand dollars a month. The goal is noble. They say that they will start receiving decent wages for their work and will stop taking bribes. If this is the real reason, then it is unclear why your salary was increased significantly?
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, for officials to work well (meaning for the people), they must have a conscience. They already have money, and we see it. But we see no conscience. Will they really go and buy a conscience with a new salary? But then they will be ashamed to receive a hundred times more than a war veteran. And they will sell it again so as not to suffer.
And no one gives bribes to pensioners. Therefore, there is no point in protecting them from temptation with a high pension.
Benefits for a pensioner: for a bus, for an apartment, for medicine.
Benefits of the minister: a car, two or three drivers, gasoline (it takes a lot: you have to come for the minister in the morning, then take him somewhere, take him home in the evening, then drive the car to the garage. Roughly speaking, if a private owner drives along the route in a day “ home - work" twice, then a company car - four). And the apartment, and the special hospitals...
High-ranking officials are provided with official country housing. The official pays about one hundred dollars a month for it. But the Office of the President of the Russian Federation rents out such an apartment to businessmen at a realistic price: $5,000 per month. Thus, the official pays only 2%; the housing allowance for an official alone costs the state $4,900 a month (almost 150 thousand rubles).
In our Constitution, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, in article 19, paragraph 2, it is said: “The state guarantees equality of rights and freedoms of man and citizen, regardless of ... official position.” It also lists gender, nationality, religion, but we are now only interested in equal rights, regardless of position.
In your opinion, Vladimir Vladimirovich, is this article of the Constitution, of which you are the guarantor in your official position, being observed?
Continuing to look into the minister's pocket, we get: salary - 3000, housing allowance - 4900, monthly maintenance of an Audi A8 or Mercedes - 1000, drivers' salary - 1500, mobile phones in the pocket, in the car...
There is not enough space to list everything. But it is clear that such a gentleman costs us much more than ten thousand dollars a month. A hundred or even two hundred times more expensive than a pensioner.
It seems that the officials did not earn this money. Looks like they took it off the passbook. Whose? It seems that our grandmothers' savings are being returned to young ministers through benefits. And grandmothers are paid a pension.
Two hundred times is too big a difference.
This is another planet.
These people are not able to understand how people live. They hear about it, sometimes see it on TV, but they don’t understand it.
There is a small country whose GDP differs little from ours. There is nothing in Switzerland. There is no oil, gas, gold, diamonds... Compared to us, they don’t even have territory. And there are few people - only 7 million.
Russia's GDP is $240 billion, Switzerland's GDP is $231 billion. They are 20 times smaller in population, but produce the same amount. They work a lot. But they live longer and die less often and later.
Per capita income varies greatly. Ours is $1,440 a year, theirs is $38,300.
The minister receives $20,000 a month there (the president receives a little more, but the presidential term there is one year). The minister has no benefits.
The living wage there is $2,300 per month per person. And no one lives below the minimum. If there is not enough, the state pays extra. It turns out that the difference between a pensioner and a minister is at most nine times, and not a hundred, like ours.
A teacher there receives $50,000 a year, a university professor - 120,000 a year, that is, half as much as a minister. And here it is thirty times less (if you don’t count ministerial benefits).
And with a pension it’s simple. A person receives a pension equal to 75 percent of his last salary. This means that a teacher’s pension is $3,000 a month, and a professor’s is $7,500.
Sorry if I bored you with numbers. Next time I will write about the soul. But I assure you: senior citizens in our country have been continuously adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying for the last few months. And they do it poorly.
P.S. Some themes in this book are repeated, unfortunately. Benefits, fake medicines, Basayev... But it’s life’s fault, not the author’s. If people are sold poison again and again, you have to write about it again and again. And a journalist has no other way. But people have it. As soon as millions go out onto the streets, as if by magic, they will get everything. But not for long.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Money doesn't buy happiness, you know. But as you look around with cold attention, everything is measured only by money.
When you went somewhere to a G8 meeting (Grand - grandiose, magnificent, luxurious; the "Big Eight" would be B8 - Big, large), the newspapers printed a table - the "standard of living" of your countries: GDP in dollars per capita.
I don't know what they wanted to say by this. Maybe they showed: where to go with a pig's snout in a Kalash line. Like, I’m also a member of the Big Eight, but they themselves are three or four times poorer than the other seven. Like, those seven are the Grands, and they took us there so as not to anger the nuclear club. To cajole, so as not to interfere with the expansion of NATO, the bombing of Yugoslavia, etc.
But to us this sign does not at all seem like a reproach or ridicule. On the contrary: being only three times poorer than the richest is great!
Money does not buy happiness, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich. And not even in their quantity. This cynical addition has been refuted with your help. Look to the northeast from your Kremlin office. There, six kilometers from you, in the cell of “Matrosskaya Tishina”, sits a man whom an insane amount of money did not make him happy. And even vice versa: it was the amount of money that made him unhappy.
No, money doesn’t buy happiness, Vladimir Vladimirovich. This means that life is not about them.
Why are we forced to assess the standard of living in rubles (dollars)? No, the sign only shows the level of wealth.
If measured by GDP, Russia is equal to Switzerland. And if you measure it “per capita,” then we (each) are twenty times poorer. And if measured by area, then we (each) are twenty times richer, or more precisely, we have twenty times more space.
But for some reason it’s still cramped.
I recently made way for you. Such joy! – Now I travel by train, I don’t have to stand in traffic jams, breathe in the poisoned exhaust of thousands of crammed cars. And for several years I found myself in these terrible traffic jams almost every day (because our routes partially coincide with you - Rublyovka, Kutuzovsky). You are running with the wind. The road that takes you ten minutes takes us an hour and a half. Well, why did I resist? In the summer, electric trains transport many millions of people. Tickets, however, are now not cheap, but they save gas, brake pads, and nerves. And no bandit will cut you off on the 600. And no idiot with federal license plates will push him aside, disgustingly quacking and croaking with a special signal. You can read on the road. A line of sellers walks along the carriages, enthusiastically praising their goods - you can buy anything and very cheaply.
The first thing I bought from such a peddler was “A completely new schedule! For only ten rubles!” - there, accurate to the minute...
The next day I looked at the schedule - fathers! There's a train in ten minutes! How I ran! – I wanted to go to work... I took off onto the Perkhushkovo platform – I felt that something was wrong. Not a soul. Some old man is lying drunk, some girls are drunk (graduates) - three bottles of beer for five of them in a circle, one has a baby in a stroller... But there are not a soul of people who look like they are rushing to work.
I wandered to the checkout. It's terrible there. The window is locked, and on the window, on scraps of paper, canceled and (even worse) “rescheduled” trains are listed.
9.03, 9.26, 10.38, 11.04, 11.16 and five more have been cancelled. Two trains (one of which is at 7.40, funny) have their route cut off, that is, they do not reach the place indicated in the new schedule “for only ten rubles.”
The 10.08 train leaves at 12.06, and the 11.48 train leaves at 12.27, but that’s not so bad. It’s worse that the 14.30 train leaves at 13.31, and she’s not the only one. Which at 15.02 - leaves at 14.32, and 16.29 - at 16.13... You come, and she is bye-bye.
In order not to fool you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I will say that this week in Perkhushki 46 electric trains have been moved and canceled every day, and on the next working day - Monday, July 12 - from Perkhushki (if you believe the paper) 21 electric trains will be canceled, two shortened and nine rescheduled, six of them leaving earlier than scheduled. However, by Monday this list may increase.
You won’t believe it, but about the three moved trains, in addition to the new departure time, it is written in a woman’s beautiful handwriting: “On the wrong route.” This means that she will come to another platform, and if you don’t know this in advance, then you won’t have time to run across, even risking your life - she stands for thirty seconds and leaves with a cheerful whistle: in the right direction from the wrong path.
And what’s even worse is that it’s different every day, every day in a new way. But the cashier doesn’t have a telephone, so walking around at night to find out what will happen tomorrow is unbearable. And there have already been cases when, instead of waiting an hour and a half for the nearest train, I wandered home with the thought “it’s not my destiny to get to work”; I could have been fired ten times already.
And you know, another unpleasant oddity: whether the train has been moved or not, not a single one arrives on time. Here it is yesterday: the most reliable train was canceled, the cashier said that the next one was in half an hour. And she arrived in 52 minutes.
And so - at all stations, in all directions. Every year they print a new schedule and never follow it. But we also published it in MK - we thought it would bring benefit to readers.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, by God, we can wait, we are accustomed (I don’t want to say trained); but trains that leave 10–15 minutes ahead of time are too much. Something bad arises in the soul. You start to think about your Motherland in a way that you shouldn’t. The mind is looking for an explanation - and cannot find it.
When a submarine sinks, a faulty torpedo or a storm is to blame; when someone is blown up in Chechnya, the war is to blame, what can you do about it; when we lose in football, bad refereeing, a bad leg, a coach are to blame... There is always a reason. If you understand why it happened this way, it becomes easier.
And with electric trains... In the first days, when I was still inexperienced, I came running somehow, and she (moved) left ten minutes earlier than indicated in the new schedule (why did I buy it?). Nothing to do, the next one is in an hour. Probably, I think, the track is being repaired - that’s why the interval is so long (my soul yearns for a clear explanation). And then with a roar - a courier passenger, 15 cars... And twenty minutes later - another one... This means that there is no repair of the track. You raise your eyes to the heavens - and there is no answer, only rain.
When a person stands on a platform in the pouring rain for forty minutes, he begins to think because he has nothing to do. Including about you.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, you saw Grozny and were amazed: “Everything is not as they reported to me! Everything is much worse! Then you saw Ingushetia - the same reaction. You are taken aback when you suddenly come across reality, because usually, before you go to reality, it is cleaned up, painted, trained and improved.
What can we say about war and the military. Even the oligarchs (when they recently met with you in the Kremlin) were strictly instructed: who will ask you what question. Previously, this was only done to journalists before presidential press conferences.
Why secret flights to dangerous places? Start with us, with Moscow - this is your capital. Change your clothes, glue on your beard (this is what the great Caliph Harun al-Rashid did when he felt it was time to find out how it really was there) - and off to the market, to the train, to Perkhushki, to Petushki.
Please don't be angry that I come to you with such a trifle. Well, you appoint ministers and heads of natural monopolies. And this, whatever one may say, is about the interests of millions of people - mainly your voters (even colonels ride trains, I saw it myself, but oligarchs never do).
Order in Chechnya? in the Caucasus? in the Far East? Wait, let's start simple.
Why Zhiguli cars are bad, why vodka is fake, why there are such pensions and there is no electricity or water - there is always a reason for everything. But why the trains don’t run on schedule is a mystery. Rails, carriages, drivers - this does not change. If she's going, why not on time? After all, every day everything is different, and there is no point in remembering at all, because they are late - that is, reality does not coincide with either what is printed on behalf of the government (Ministry of Railways), or with what is written by hand by the cashiers. They say that the Ministry of Railways has already been privatized. Is it really true?
Changes are annual and daily – why? If each change became more convenient, then within 50 years the system would have achieved incredible perfection. And this looks like a terrible mockery.
Maybe this is a secret educational method invented during the time of Stalin? Maybe this is how patience and humility are taught?
How many nerves are burned! But this is not taken into account in any way when publishing income comparable to the G8.
I haven’t been to Switzerland for three years, but I can tell you that the Lausanne-Geneva trains leave at 10.03, 10.38 and 10.56, the latter being an express train, and those with two stops. And if you want earlier, please: 8.03, 8.38, 8.56; and if you want later - please: 14.03, 15.03, 16.03... In order not to delay the listing, I will say that the Swiss have an easy life: you only need to remember the minutes of departure, because they are the same every hour, and whether it is morning, afternoon or evening - not important. And in all directions, between all cities, electric trains rush, and the minutes of their departure are unchanged. Year after year. And they move away second by second.
It’s wrong that I remember the Lausanne – Geneva schedule and don’t remember Perkhushki – Begovaya.
Money does not buy happiness, Vladimir Vladimirovich. The standard of living is not measured by them. There, in these G8 (not counting Russia), if a policeman enters a store just to buy milk or beer, no one will turn their head in his direction. But for us, the seller is overcome with trembling: what tribute should we pay? – you can’t always get away with a bottle. And buyers there don’t think about whether the vodka is poisoned, whether the wine is fake, or whether the medicine is counterfeit...
What will happen to the train schedule, Vladimir Vladimirovich, when GDP doubles? Will the producers of counterfeit vodka and medicines be shot as murderers or will they be the ones who will double the GDP, because, you see, we don’t need twice as much gasoline and we don’t need twice as many Lada cars...
The standard of living means real medicine, the gentle attentiveness of doctors, the firm confidence that the police will protect and help. So that even in a nightmare you wouldn’t dream that police squads personally protect the rich and gangsters, and officials build mansions at a cost that is a thousand times higher than their salaries. However, once you start listing these things, you won’t stop.
After all, we have enough food, Vladimir Vladimirovich. We lack justice. But you can’t buy it, even if you have money; it's not for sale.
Sorry if I upset you, but people are very interested in what you think about it.
No. 6 Look for fistulas
Where does popular opinion go? And from whom?
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! They say that we have public opinion. But they don't say where it is hiding. Of course, not in the Duma. Although there seem to be people’s representatives there, but to the question “Do you trust the Duma?” only 2% of citizens answer “yes”. This is incomprehensible to the mind: after all, in order to pass, you need to collect two and a half times more; The new Duma does not even reach half of the five percent barrier. How did they get there, Vladimir Vladimirovich?
How is public opinion formed? People are used to learning about their lives on TV, radio, and newspapers. And if you can’t find out the truth from the media, what should we do? Eating rumors?
Yesterday, Radio Liberty reported every hour: “A convoy of the 42nd motorized rifle division came under fire in the Shatoi district, 5 were killed, 12 were wounded... On the Grozny-Shatoi highway, a car with employees of the regional department of the FSB was blown up, 3 officers and the driver were killed...”
“Svoboda” reported, but “Echo of Moscow” did not, and “Mayak”, and “Vesti” (“Russia”) did not, and Channel One did not. How can we understand whether these tragedies happened? And this happens almost every day.
If Svoboda is lying, we need to say so and punish it. And if she tells the truth, then it turns out that the others (“Echo”, “Mayak”, First, “Russia”, etc.) are violating the law on the media. By law, they are required to inform the public about important events. Maybe the violators should be punished?
They know how to work. In 1994–1996 and 1999–2000, they reported all losses. It turns out that now they are deliberately keeping silent.
There is another option. If the news is not important, if it does not matter for the life of society, then the media itself decides whether to report it or not.
If they considered it important, they reported it. Now they consider it unimportant - so they remain silent, spending expensive airtime on more significant things (Kirkorov, Tatu, euro exchange rate).
If so, it means that the cost of human life has dropped significantly.
It has already happened in our country that it fell to zero.
It seems that public opinion has no permanent residence.
In Soviet times, public opinion was not on TV, it was not in newspapers. Even if “letters from workers” were published, it was most often fake, made in the editorial offices. And, of course, public opinion was not expressed by opposition parties, because there were no parties.
But there was public opinion. Sometimes - in the “New World”, in “Youth”, in the Taganka Theater. And there have always been people who were then called (without ridicule) the conscience of the nation.
These people had a bad opinion of the authorities of the CPSU and the KGB. Suffocation is what we felt. And when the noose broke, the KGB trembled. Right in front of Lubyanka (in 1991 this was not the name of the street, but of the organization), right in front of all its proliferating huge buildings, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was knocked down - and not one of the thousands of employees (officers!) tried to protect their idol.
And the crowd had a great desire to destroy the Lubyanka, get to the archives, see: who is who?
These pogromists were pure people. Nearby are GUM, TSUM; under the noise, the crowd (as in Iraq, as in Florida, as elsewhere) could rush for the goods.
No, the Russian crowd of August 1991 rushed for information. For freedom.
Now these people are being made out to be deceived fools. No, then they were neither fools nor deceived. They were deceived later. And in 1991 they were smart. But - inexperienced.
Tell me, Vladimir Vladimirovich, if the British began to overthrow the government or even the queen, would they rush to destroy their counterintelligence? And Israel? No matter how brutally they fight for power there, it never occurs to them to gut MOSSAD. Citizens of countries with highly developed intelligence do not hate their intelligence. They see it as their protection. Why did so many people in the USSR (not only dissidents) see the KGB as a strangler?
This parenthesis replaces the accent. If there are branches of power, then there are knots, but a person can read with the wrong emphasis and get feminine dogs.
End of free trial.
You have in your hands the history of our Motherland. And not the last two or three years, but all of it.
You have in your hands correspondence with the emperor. They call him president, but this is a formality. And elections are a formality, not democracy at all.
They chose Roman emperors, they chose Russian tsars (Godunov, Romanov, Rurik were also chosen by someone when they were invited).
One such election is described by Pushkin:
PEOPLE (on my knees. Howling and crying)
Oh, have mercy, our father! rule over us!
Be our father, our king.
This is the election of Boris Godunov. Here are the results announced:
The crown is behind him! he is a king! he agreed!
Boris is our king! long live Boris!
This jubilation is so similar to Yeltsin’s election (for the first term) that in the early 1990s one was tempted to quote these lines in almost every note.
But we know how Pushkin’s tragedy ends. Or have you forgotten?.. Everyone remembers the last remark "The people are silent." However, a minute before this silence, before this cemetery silence, a rather lively scene takes place:
People, people! to the Kremlin! to the royal chambers!
Go! knit Borisov's puppy!
PEOPLE (rushes through the crowd)
To knit! Stoke! Long live Dimitri!
May the family of Boris Godunov perish!
This people, which, in Pushkin’s terrible expression, “is rushing in a crowd,” is the same. He begged Boris to become king. And now he’s ready to drown an innocent teenager. Then, of course, the people will remain silent in horror, but first they still want to drown him.
400 years have passed, the people remain the same. All that remained was to wait. Soon everything came true.
It’s incredibly interesting: to recognize in today (in the new! in the seemingly unique!) the classic yesterday and the day before yesterday is an eternity.
Life is full of mysteries. We don't notice them, we don't realize them. We live inside riddles, but we don’t understand, we don’t know the answers.
Life has changed fantastically: mobile phones, computers, we fly into space. But you open the most modern life safety textbook, and there are detailed instructions: how to crawl on your bellies correctly. Modern children, computerized children of the 21st century, learn to crawl, like before Peter the Great, before Ivan the Terrible, before Tsar Gorokh, and they probably think that “in the Plastun way” from the word “plasticine”, not knowing that there were such Cossacks-Plastuns, hunting Turks on the outskirts of the Russian Empire (where is now sovereign Ukraine).
...The emperor has little idea of the life of his subjects.
He is a human being and can get sick like everyone else. He has two arms, two legs - like everyone else. But he never goes to the pharmacy. Doesn't know prices. For him there are no concepts of “closed for lunch”, “closed for registration”, “sanitary day”. And most importantly: when he takes the medicine (by mouth, like everyone else), he is sure (and we are sure) that it is real. And 60% of our medicines in pharmacies (and according to some sources – 80%) are fake, that is, they do not cure, but poison.
Of course, he seems to himself to be a genius; Well, it’s no coincidence that he became emperor. And - especially - not by the will of a runaway, arrogant, vile bastard. ...Or is it God's finger? The last option is much nicer.
What you are reading now and what you feel at the same time, roughly speaking, is called thinking. People sometimes like to think.
It's like a crossword puzzle, only more interesting. You solve the riddles of Heaven and Fate, and do not write letters in squares, trying to guess some plant with three letters.
And people also love to have their thoughts said out loud. And if they suddenly come across their own thoughts in a book or newspaper, they don’t feel so lonely, they even feel happy, and they shout to their wife: “Klava! That's what I told you yesterday! Look, these are exactly my words!”
That's all it takes: guess his thoughts and write them down correctly. And then you receive letters from readers, and there (in almost every one): “we are ready to subscribe to your every word.”
It is not my words that they are ready to subscribe to, but their own thoughts.
No. 1 “Letters to the President”
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! When you took office (it was a long time ago), you said: “In Russia, the president is responsible for everything!” This is actually true. And it doesn’t matter whether these were sincere words or just an election slogan (propaganda).
But it seems that there is no one next to you who would dare to ask the unpleasant question: “I am responsible for everything” - to whom?
In front of the people? Before God? Before your own conscience?
In front of the people - of course not. Under our election system (dishonest propaganda, dishonest counting), under our managed democracy, we do not count: how many people came, how many were “for”. And in 2008, only you will decide: to leave or to stay? How Nazarbayev, Karimov, Lukashenko, Turkmenbashi remained.
Before God - this is if you not only really believe (which no one can know), but also keep the commandments (which is almost impossible for a politician).
Before your conscience - well, this is the simplest thing. Adults (especially those from the USSR, and even more so with such a difficult biography) are amazingly able to negotiate with their own conscience.
And if so, if there is no higher authority that can (and has the right) to demand accountability, then “responsibility” is an empty phrase.
Favorite expression of the “right”: “We have never been afraid to take responsibility!” It is in vain that they are proud of this, because responsibility never came to them. Despite all the crimes. And if responsibility does not come, why be afraid of it?
Sometimes we see a picture of responsibility.
After Kadyrov’s assassination, you flew to Chechnya. After the tragedy in Nazran, we flew to Ingushetia. These flights are a big risk, perhaps even unacceptable for the President of Russia. These flights are a demonstration of personal courage. But what does this give?
Nothing to do. Fly secretly and with super security around your country, replacing politics with personal courage... It would be better if your subordinates delivered Basayev alive to Moscow. Exactly alive, because he knows so much about our politicians, businessmen...
It is believed that a journalist should appeal to readers and public opinion. But we have a special country - there are readers, but there is no public opinion. More precisely, ours is small and sick: extremely irritated, but quiet, swears only in the kitchen, in the smoking room...
People buy a newspaper, read it - that is, they do something real (measured in rubles, minutes, copies). What about public opinion? Show it in real action.
Everyone argued that “Namedni” is the best TV show. On Sundays, a million people watched it in Moscow alone. And a good million - not homeless people, not prostitutes... A million politically literate, highly conscious, smart, educated. And even these conscious ones did not take to the streets in defense of “Namedni”. No one.
Yes, they were not called to the rally, they were not promised a free rock concert and a cap. But a normal citizen must go out himself. In Prague, every third citizen came out to stand up for TV (in Moscow this would be three million). In London, more than a million came out against the war in Iraq (not at all at Hussein’s call). In Moscow, in August 1991, people themselves went to defend their beliefs. Against tanks! After all, no one knew whether the army would shoot or not.
But it turned out that the most sincere and honest, defending their convictions in 1991, ensured their quick ruin. The power for which they risked their lives turned towards them as Asian...
The sincere, brave and honest were discouraged for a long time from defending something there. But the insincere and dishonest never had such a desire before. Then there was silence.