Uvazhayemyy Gospodin Prezident Putin!
“Two souls live, oh, in my chest,” Johann Goethe’s Doctor Faust sighs when he is faced with a dilemma. This dilemma is later described as the struggle between the “id” and the “superego” by Sigmund Freud. This quote comes to my mind when I look at Russia this weekend. There the match between Dynamo Putin and Torpedo Navalny is playing and I don’t know who to go with.
My Europe United is hoping Torpedo wins. This is done for tactical reasons, because Dynamo is a strong competitor in the World Cup. The Biden Bulls also support Torpedo as much as they can because a strong Dynamo is just as inadequate for them. So much agreement on the the west stand makes me skeptical.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, even if I am a revolutionary in my heart, I stand by you. I am a fan of Dynamo Putin. Why?
There are a couple of reasons for this: First, Dynamo Putin ended the supremacy of FC Mafia. When you, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, came to power on New Year’s Day in 2000, the Russian Federation was caught in the struggle of relegation from the world group. As much as I loved Boris Nikolayevitch personally, the end of the Yeltsin era was a blessing for the country. No one in the West can imagine the personal and economic catastrophes the power vacuum brought about after the collapse of communism. When my left-wing liberal friends keep getting angry about your politics, I always casually ask: “How many time zones does Russia have?”
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, we in the affluent West cannot imagine how different the problems are outside of Western Europe. And, self-centered as we are, we have zero interest in knowing that either. My left-wing liberal Western affluent friends believe that Russia can be governed in the same way as Vienna-Mariahilf, Munich-Schwabing, Hamburg-Blankenese or Berlin-Schöneberg. But even there we can’t get the cyclists to stick to the rules.
How do you make peace in Chechnya? How do you protect your country from NSA control? How do you stabilize the ruble against the US dollar? How do you help the rule of law in Russia achieve a breakthrough? Anyone who condemns Vladimir Putin for his politics has understood neither the Russian Federation nor world politics. Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, I, on the other hand, have the greatest respect for you.
That doesn’t mean that Alexei Navalny should be poisoned. Personally, I consider Alexei Anatoliewitsch, to put it mildly, politically a “right-wing populist”, as we euphemistically call the semi-fascists. And personally he is certainly, as they say in Vienna, “a little scabies”, in German “a nerve saw”, in English “a pain in the ass”. I have no sympathy for his politics. But I do not wish him death.
Right now a message has just come in from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “Navalny protests from the Baltic to the Pacific: tens of thousands are demonstrating against Putin all over Russia.” Tens of thousands all over Russia? That may inspire the southern German Hanseatic people, but as President of the Russian Federation, I would now allow myself a joint. Tens of thousands all over Russia? That’s maybe a little over a thousand per time zone.
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, if I put myself in your place today, the only question I would be asking myself is who will be my successor. How does “the peaceful transition of power” succeed in Mother Russia? You will probably win the next election, but what then? The West obviously wants Alexei Navalny as your successor. But what do you want?
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, I therefore take the liberty of asking you just one question: which successor would you prefer to Alexei Anatoliewitsch?
I am looking forward to follow this decision from now on.
S uvazheniyem k Moskve
Peter Wurm
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Vienna Calling 