How to lift a barrel from your knees?

I discovered this letter on the Ekho Moskvy website, among other questions for the Minority Opinion program.

Vladimirovich Medvutin, an unemployed man from Yaroslavl, wondered if I knew how to lift a barrel from my knees?

As they say now, that's it .

If this is a joke, it's a very subtle one.

If it’s not a joke, but an honest expression of people’s pain, then it’s absolutely brilliant!