Our dumb

Ilya Milstein, 11/02/2015

From the magazine "Branch".

A rather unusual survey takes place on the Echo of Moscow website. Readers are invited to speak about the president in connection with his, as it were, a cold -blooded reaction to the death of a Russian passenger aircraft. In fact, the “condolences” in the press release genre, the decree “On the announcement of mourning in connection with the aviation disaster that occurred in the Arab Republic of Egypt”, the instructions of Medvedev “to form state -custody” - this is, this is a rather restrained response, if we mean the scale of the trouble. Here are colleagues and ask their audience: "Have you expected Vladimir Putin more participating in connection with the tragedy?"

Formulated fuzzy, but still understandable. This refers to purely human participation. Well, like in the West, when some loud tragedy forces presidents and premieres literally on the same day and hour to speak with appropriate words.

The correspondent of the radio station Alexei Naryshkin in his blog develops this topic. In that spirit, it develops that today he wants to see this man - President Putin. "Come out and declare (Conshew): Citizens, do not be afraid. Everyone is under control!" - the correspondent calls on the guarantor, but he has not heated yet. It doesn’t work out, does not announce, does not even lie. Sounds.

Meanwhile, there is nothing to be surprised at, asking and crying out. For the ability to be silent in such moments when it is impossible to be silent - this is a characteristic feature of Vladimir Vladimirovich. His special talent. Corporate style.

You can recall at least Kursk and the presidential vacation in Sochi, reluctantly interrupted five days after the death of the submarine. You can recall Beslan and mothers of Beslan, whom Putin met a year after the "random assault". You can recall that about any tragedy, he, having thought for a long time and deeply realized what happened, knows how to pronounce some brutal, easily memorable phrase or inform that Russia has survived, but is physically not able to utter simple human words. However, most often he is simply silent, and is pronounced, as if taking revenge, during many hours of “straight lines” or there on Valdai. When the past misfortunes can be mentioned in passing, and no one will ask about future.

It is also noticeable that the tragedies of Russian life cause his feelings unexpected: irritation and anger. As if someone intentionally wished him to upset and humiliate him, and managed to achieve his vile desires. Otherwise, how to explain that the news of the death of Anna Politkovskaya forced him to say that the murder caused the "current government" more damage than her publication. Or how to understand the requirement addressed to the police authorities after the execution of Boris Nemtsov: it is necessary, "it is necessary to" save Russia from shame and tragedies like the one that we recently survived and saw. " The leader does not want the country to be disgraced, and he practically nothing more to say.

It is wild to hear such speeches to a normal person. They killed a journalist-lawyer. Well, why should I tell citizens about the fact that her articles harmed you, but even more harmful her death? They killed a famous opposition politician, your personal enemy, if not an enemy. This is a shame, yes, however, Russia would surely have been delivered from shame if it had not been poisoned so stubbornly in state media. Putin is insulting for the power, but he is not able to experience ordinary human pain. That is, probably, simple human impulses are alien to him, and to the question of Larry King about the fate of the Kursk submarine, he answers directly and heartlessly: "She drowned." An unpleasant question is a prickly answer. He feels hurt when he is asked such questions.

True, there are still suspicions that the Kremlin authorities are directly involved in custom -made political killings. Then it seems he should only react, barely hiding the gloating. If these suspicions are false, then one gets the impression that Putin does not care at least all those dead. He is very sensitive to the problems of geopolitics, and when an indestructible union or neighbors crumble, without consulting, they throw off his president, he perceives it as a personal insult. He is impetitive to hysteria, if it comes to the boundaries of his political influence. But he is strikingly indifferent when his compatriots die or captivate. This must be called patriotism - in its most merciless state sense.

Therefore, he, apparently, is silent, almost without responding to the most terrible tragedy in the history of Russian aviation: what, from his point of view, will you say here? In addition, as a professional Chekist, he wants to first find out what happened, why the plane suddenly fell apart in the air, and only then, if necessary, contact the nation with the prepared speech. And if this is a terrorist attack, then the words will be needed completely special, mobilizing to fight enemies, and here you can expect anything at all, that is, the actions of the most tough, absurd and decisive. Otherwise, the words are also needed and other words, or maybe no words will be needed. In the end, the day of mourning passed, and the genuine grief is silent, isn't it?

By the way, for the most part, the participants in the survey at Echo of Moscow, as the numbers show, did not expect any other reaction from Vladimir Vladimirovich. He generally met their painful expectations. However, the audience on this radio, as you know, is a specific one, not having a noticeable influence on the most important polls, according to which it turns out that nine out of ten Russians support Putin. Therefore, they support that their president is so cool, cold -blooded, restrained and does not drop words. For that, they love that they are not a talker, and in general he knows better when and who needs to sympathize. And the fact that silence is gold, the faithful voters of Vladimir Vladimirovich will be learned more than once from the brief Kremlin press releases.