Kiss Putin and Trump

Graffiti appeared in Vilnius "We will do everything great again"

Mindaudas Bonan, a 34-year-old graphic designer, placed on the wall of the Vilnius restaurant with American cuisine Graffiti with the image of kissing Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the President of Russia and the US presidential candidate from the Republican Party.

Graffiti's photographs dispersed on the Internet. Its name - Make EVERYTHING GREAT AGAIN - refers to Trump Make America Great Again to Trump's election slogan (we will return greatness to America), and it can be translated as "we will do everything great again," but we can "make it so that everything is excellent again."

This is the paraphrase made by Dmitry Vrubel of the famous graffiti on the Berlin Wall "Lord! Help me survive in this mortal love", which captures the strong kiss of Leonid Brezhnev and Eric Honecker.

Graffiti had never been engaged in Bonan before, and in an interview with Radio Liberty he described the reasons for his appearance:

- They are both - both Trump and Putin are very egocentric persons. We don’t think about politics, we don’t care. But we thought that they were egoists, and they would be better together if they were a couple, they would be very lucky in life. It would be good for them. And street art is what everyone sees.

- What is this place, where is this wall with graffiti?

- This is the famous place in Vilnius, Zabagalovka with American cuisine. She is very popular, the youth is going. They love America. We were given a wall there so that we would make graffiti with Trump and Putin. On the border with Russia, such a American place, I think, is very suitable.

- What you drew is, of course, the paraphrase of Vrubel. Why did you take it as a basis?

- Now is such a time: in America - Trump, and it is unclear whether they will choose it or not. And Putin sits in Russia - the topic is also very obscure. Therefore, we chose this: everyone is interested in how it will be next - they will kiss or not.

- Graffiti Vrubel actually marked the end of the GDR and the USSR. Do you suspect that here your characters will not act for a very long time?

- I would not talk about that, I am not a political scientist. But both of these characters from the outside are very funny, they love themselves very much, they don’t think about others. These are people who are better off to make some show, and not politics and play the lives of other people - especially in Russia everything happens.

- In recent years, Russia has been behaving quite harshly, there was a lot of talk about scenarios in which Russia would begin a certain hybrid war in the Baltic states. Is this topic present? Is it discussing it? Are people worried about this? Are you experiencing yourself?

- A year ago, people worried, but now everything has passed. Everyone calmly live further, as they lived. What is there to be afraid of? What will Russia do here? Here no one speaks Russian or very few. Well, it will come, so what? They will not shoot everyone. Now people are not afraid that Russians will come, Russia will attack.

- And America? Is it perceived as a defender? When you draw Trump, are you not afraid to lose protection?

- We are not afraid. Trump is a very good character like Mickey Mouse. I don't think he will come. It would be very funny ... We are too small to change something.

- Are you interested in the situation in Russia, if you do not talk about the hybrid war and the threats of invasion?

- Yes, I am interested in, because I have many Russian friends. I hear everything from them what is happening there, because the news is sometimes not very clear, you don’t know whether or not.

- You were born in the Soviet Union. Is it all completely gone? In Lithuania, nothing from Russia, is there from the USSR?

- There were old people who still remember and who are their heads in the Soviet Union. And so everything is Europe. Only old buildings remind of this, old factories - and that’s all. I don't remember either. It was just and it was. Childhood passed. Everything is fine, we live on.

- Your drawing is such a bothering. Although Russia is a large and strong neighbor of Lithuania. You are not worried about this neighbor?

- No, we are not worried at all. We draw because we can do it. We are a free country. This is our opinion. What they wanted was shown. No one will put him in prison for this, he will not give a fine. People like it. I say what I want . I am responsible for my words and I'm not afraid. Not as it used to be in the Soviet Union or now in Russia.