TV viewer #1

On June 2, Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). And before that, he talked with representatives of American business and the heads of world news agencies

The President's speech at the plenary session looked like a protocol: GDP is growing, we are open for cooperation, especially now, when the world needs wisdom and joint work to overcome new challenges, and geopolitical games are not needed at all (although who plays geopolitical games more often than others? , is it not a speaker who declared their uselessness?). The independence of the courts should be increased (how, is there room for perfection here, haven’t our courts reached their maximum heights?), governors should support business, and the state should introduce digital technologies. “It would be nice if you suddenly make an underground passage from the house or build a stone bridge across the pond, on which there would be shops on both sides, and so that merchants would sit in them and sell various small goods needed by the peasants,” he said about the same the classic is much earlier and much shorter.

The meeting with the heads of world news agencies that took place the day before the plenary session turned out to be more meaningful. There are no longer common words, here - sore. Putin generally feels comfortable among wise foreigners, both in Valdai and at SPIEF. Perhaps in recent years it has also been a way of convincing oneself that international isolation is a myth. And at the same time to convey to the interlocutors their own picture of the world, those ideas about reality, in accordance with which Russia builds its policy, both external and internal.

But all speeches of this kind show one thing: the picture of the world, in accordance with which the president leads a nuclear power, quite accurately coincides with the very flat picture of the world of a gullible viewer of Russian propaganda TV programs. Russophobia is rampant in the world, because the unipolar world is dying in writhing, and the monopolists, of course, do not like the fact that Russia is seriously defending its national interests. Without interfering, of course, in the internal affairs of other countries. There are volunteers for this. “Hackers can crawl out anywhere, from anywhere, from any country in the world… These are free people, like artists: they are in a good mood, they got up in the morning and are busy painting pictures. So are hackers. They woke up today and read that something is going on in interstate relations; if they are patriotic, they begin to make their contribution, as they consider it right, in the fight against those who speak badly about Russia. When asked about the possible demilitarization of the Kuriles, the president repeated a rather worn-out Internet meme: if not for us, American troops would have been stationed there long ago. The nuance is that he was not trying to joke at the same time.

They, the owners of factories, newspapers and yachts, arbiters of destinies, writers of economic programs for 30 years in advance in front of a person on the stage, have no more rights than recruits in front of a strict sergeant in the barracks

Although the key point of all the president's speeches at the forum is just a joke. "Putin was joking!" - all news agencies reported when the head of state stepped onto the stage of the plenary session hall. The joke is this: the audience stood up and greeted the President of the Russian Federation with applause. The President commanded "At ease!" and, laughing happily, moved to the chair. The audience laughed too.

Whether foreign guests were able to appreciate the subtle joke, we will not undertake to guess. But the representatives of the Russian business and political elite must have understood that there was very little joke in this joke. Yes, they, the owners of factories, newspapers and yachts, the arbiters of destinies, the writers of economic programs for 30 years ahead, have no more rights in front of a person on the stage than recruits have in front of a strict sergeant in the barracks. And nothing can be done about it, all that remains is to giggle ingratiatingly, because you never know. Because suddenly he will notice that someone in the hall did not laugh at his joke. (For more information about the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, see p. 58).