Nikolai Travkin: "Three heroes"

“The weather in Sochi was wonderful. Vladimir Vladimirovich, wearing a light T-shirt that emphasized his prominent chest, sat at a table on the summer terrace and, slowly, stirred tea with a silver spoon (the patriarch gave him the other day) finishing his early breakfast. It was about 12 o’clock. At the left his legs, his head funnyly tilted to the side, the little Alabaik Verny (Turkmenbashi gave it to him the other day) was sitting, waiting for stroking behind the ear. Sergei Vladilenovich was standing on the right,” writes the former politician on his Facebook page.

“Are you going to hold a campaign at all? Or will you just announce the participants on the morning of March 15th and the results on TV?” - Vladimir Vladimirovich asked...

A little over an hour later, Gaidaev’s “trinity” stood in front of the deputy head of the subsection of the Administration’s internal policy department, which oversees work with the leaders of the Duma factions.

A young man of 23-25 ​​years of pleasant appearance, with a scarf casually tied around his neck and imposingly leaning back in his chair, was slowly finishing touching up with a nail file the already perfect-looking nail of his little finger on his left hand.

“Grandpas,” he asked rhetorically, putting the nail file away in the manicure set (a gift from the head of the department), “have you gone completely crazy?” Do you think people remember you anyway? On TV, throw away your sour blizzard with expiration dates that expired 20 years ago and again in chocolate for six years? Yes, a whole generation has already grown up, which considers you Lenin’s accomplices. The one who takes pictures with the Chinese on Manezhnaya Square for 1.5 thousand and drinks Doshirak and beer during breaks. Dart somewhere around the territory, say smart words into the TV against a beautiful background, well, in general, portray real presidential candidates. Just don’t try to campaign for Putin, like last time! You are an opposition, albeit a constructive one, but an opposition. Well, let's go ahead. At the same time, you’ll shake your asses and bellies a little, don’t take care of yourself,” the young official regretfully finished his parting words to the veterans of the political scene, following them with his gaze to the door...

Yesterday, the leaders of the Duma factions - oppositionists in law - posed in front of television cameras in the style of Vasnetsov's "three heroes". But without horses.
Behind them were the grandiose structures of the Crimean Bridge being built and potential candidates for the presidency of Russia vied with each other about the engineering uniqueness of the structure, about the fact that it was nowhere else and no one else in the world and, of course, about the final - now physical - annexation of Crimea.
And it became clear to television viewers once again whose merit it was in all this and who should be thanked for this with a tick in the ballot next March.”