Putin without Russia

and after the convulsive attempts of the OMON teams in Moscow and St. Political insanity is accompanied by fear of the people, snare and did not stick out) one seditious truth became obvious. This power is doomed, and without any extremist activity. After all, dinosaurs died out not from the extremism of mammals, but from their own brainlessness: a brain the size of a nut could not control a huge, voracious, clumsy body. The amount of brains that the authorities demonstrated during the dispersal of demonstrators, journalists and passers-by on the streets of both capitals does not give grounds to assume that the three parties in power (bears and desmans under the canopy of sunflowers), officials and, in general, the whole host of eternally hungry Chekists (who have clean the entire GDP will soon stick to their hands) can survive the Jurassic period, which will soon end, because geology, unlike geopolitics, cannot be beaten by any vertical of power. The vertical of power was chopped into batons and given to the riot police, and citizens learned the administrative mechanisms by experience. But that wasn't enough for the dinosaurs. With a feverish heart and a frostbitten head, they rushed to adopt amendments to the law on extremism, which, due to its bloodthirsty and precise wording, could well be called the law of the Inquisition. For the opportunity to describe the specific signs of extremism in legal language is as great as the probability of proving that X is a witch, and Y sold his soul to the devil. It is clear what a thief, a murderer, a church thief and a counterfeiter are, but extremists do not occur in nature and in the underworld, they exist only in the idle speculation of the Chekists. An extremist is someone who doesn't like power out loud. And these are very different people, and it is not possible to create a portrait of them for the stand “They are wanted by the secret police”. And it’s not yet a fact that Chekists need to be loved. The Gospel says nothing about this. When you read the amendments, gigantic terms are striking: three ... five ... ten years, fantastic fines calculated on Forbes magazine nominees (either one million rubles, then 500 thousand), and the frequent mention of the word "Internet". This is where the World Wide Web comes in. Chekist spiders intend to finish off all the buzzing flies there. Reading the amendments, you come to the conclusion that the editors of the media are the real extremists. And it is not clear what to print now, because for any publication objectionable to the authorities, a bear can fall on the unfortunate editor or provider.

In principle, the law on extremism and its amendments abolish the Constitution. It's still inconvenient to cancel it right away. This is very reminiscent of the era of Nicholas I, the slander of Tsar Magnitsky and the proposal to destroy Kazan University. “But what will the Thames think? the king thought soberly in his mind. “Destroy, mon Dieu, why?” "To correct!" was a resume. Magnitsky wisely understood the position, it is easy for fools to understand: to correct is to destroy, but not under the drum. But maybe the authorities want the parties to go to the polls with dignity? So the SPS took it and went to Krasnoyarsk. Quiet, decent, liberal party. But opposition. By order from Moscow, they were deprived of everything: halls, press, TV. Headquarters were searched and sealed. Everything for the front, everything for the victory over liberalism. All the same, they passed, but through a minefield. We have a war: the Kremlin against Russia. The demonstrators shouted: “Russia without Putin!”, and Putin decided, apparently, to do without Russia, minus oil, gas, weapons and security forces.

First published in NT #13–14, May 14, 2007