Mohican

Still hopeful and strong,
Still fresh and inspired, -
Yeltsin era sons
They seem to be leaving the stage.
So “Java” was supplanted by “Gitan”,
So Rome divided the Jews...
Aksenenko the titan left -
The trusted Fadeev arrived;
How the face of the country has changed!
It's a big change in everything.
Long since deleted
Everyone who fueled Be En;
And rightly so, I get chills:
Were you all really bad?!
One left - Seleznev
From the luminaries of that era;
And now - oh frivolity, oh shame! —
They want to bring him down. No joke.
Did you think the Duma was sleeping?
She is, of course, sleeping... but lightly!

Ah, brothers! There were times
When - let me remember as an example -
The whole country was watching him,
Like after some bullfighter!
Who didn’t let the Duma members fight?
Who was the salary they liked better?
Who poured into this sea
Barrels full of oil?
When there's a general squabble
Blossomed gloomily in parliament -
Only the delicacy of the Drake
Could have saved you, O Duma.
Not so now. Why hide?
Our life reeks of boredom.
All you have to do is vote
And the Kremlin itself knows how to rule.
This arrangement is not new for us,
This is familiar and close to us:
Seleznev is no longer needed,
But, say, Sliska would be suitable.
He would seem good to everyone, -
But it's time to take it off. Hurry up!
And how can you, Gena, not understand
Why can’t you, Gena?
Nor become the Kremlin's hand,
Nor to be a parliamentary geisha...
Of course you were nothing
But here none is needed!

And the Duma - how right she is! —
I went to dig under Seleznev,
Having deprived the speaker first
His final word
Then he made it clear
(And on the left, it seems, and on the right),
What does Gene need to change...
This is how earthly glory passes by!
Are there really teeth, gentlemen?
I'll have to give it to him
on the shelf?
Oh no! I believe,
what then
Our friend will return
to Komsomolskaya Pravda!
His and ours
tent
Ready to take
to yourself
without noise -
However, only
in exchange for
That our Pilip* will head the Duma.
Dmitry Bykov.

*Pilip is a friendly nickname among colleagues of Yuri Pilipenko, editor-in-chief of the weekly Sobesednik.