We're sitting well!

What did citizens not do at the beginning of V.V.’s third presidency? Putin to influence government policy?! They practically tumbled over their heads: they gathered hordes on Bolotnaya, marched for a loaf of bread, wrote treatises on the life accessories of a “galley slave”, saw off “grandfather to retirement”, planned a “march against scoundrels”, in a week they received a hundred thousand votes for the dissolution of the State Duma, They nicknamed this Duma “Fool”...

In relation to such an enchanting play of imagination, Vladimir Vladimirovich’s actions looked surreal. You can’t imagine on purpose how the head of state was able to react to the criticism, claims and pain of some, but his compatriots. The traditional notes in his answers were only super-bold promises. On a pre-election scale, the president handed out virtual trillions left and right, giving earrings to all his sisters in his articles. In January, eighteen million Russians living below the poverty line already felt unprecedented concern for themselves, having waited at the same time as the minimum wage was increased to 5,205 rubles (the last 5 rubles are especially touching), as did those millions of unemployed people who were promised 25 million jobs in the coming years. If “Putin’s plan,” the implementation of which is not only hopelessly lame, but has already completely lost both legs, looks far beyond 2020, then the coming years in the mentioned context generally float somewhere into unknown distances, towards the end of the world, which the president predicted in 4.5 billion years. The pictures of a wonderful future are drowned out by the gloomy touches of the present: participants in anti-Putin rallies who were snatched for demonstrative flogging are being purged in prisons, criminal cases are being fabricated against opposition leaders, people continue to be dragged, beaten and kicked at uncoordinated protests. In other respects, the leader of the nation became an unsurpassed innovator. With amazing equanimity, he ignored the arguments of his opponents - about the shameless unbridledness of unjust wealth, corruption, the rollback of democracy, violations of civil rights, the excesses of government officials, etc. But in July, he became concerned about the need for general rules for the purchase of players for football and hockey clubs. In August, he delicately sent Andrei Makarevich with his call to resist corruption - to business representatives (instead of the devil, or what?). And he himself awarded the members of the Russian Olympic team (as it should be, of course). In September, briefly freed from the confines of the galley, he worked as the leader of a flock of cranes. Having fallen into delight with the achievements of the Paralympians, he awarded them bonuses in the same amounts as the Olympians. In October, he approved the “planting” of future thinkers of the year “pusek”, calling their song “Mother of God, drive Putin away” as an undermining of morality and ethics, and proposed introducing school uniforms. In November and December, we listened to the bickering between the press secretary and bloggers: “sick” - “not sick” after the “hare” with the Siberian Cranes (a “hare” in sports is an athlete who accelerates a race and leaves the race). Significant presidential bills in recent months that demonstrate his genuine concerns and interests include extending the service life of high-ranking officials to 70 years and increasing penalties for match fixing. That's the agenda! The Constitutional Council of the opposition was tongue-tied, listing the country's troubles. And here - the stadium, birds, betting...

So perhaps Nicholas II, the day after “Bloody Sunday,” wrote in his diary: “Uncle Alexei had breakfast. Received a deputation of Ural Cossacks who came with caviar. Walked. Drank tea at my mother’s.” However, if the tsar was a useless statesman, did not understand the depth of the events taking place, and subsequently became completely confused, then the current leader of Russia, of course, is not characterized by such weaknesses. He is aware of everything, and his behavior is a demonstration of complete confidence in his superiority over the enemy. Vladimir Vladimirovich is showing off. No one can tell him. In the ranking of the most influential leaders in the world, Russia has calmed down after the summer-autumn “Kuzka’s mother” (a few violent ones do not count). The president, it seems, decided to spend his six-year term with benefit for his nerves and health. The people will not die of hunger, they will survive somehow; times have indeed been worse. The main thing in the future is the Universiade in Kazan, the Olympics in Sochi, the FIFA World Cup and a number of other iconic world-class sporting events. Recently I heard a phrase from a child of about 14 years old: “I wouldn’t want to die in the near future - the World Cup is ahead.” And pensioners are like children.