D he currently valid Russian joke goes like this: Putin I do not want to be a Czar, because there is only one coronation, but the inauguration of the President can be repeated endlessly. On May 7, it was Putin’s fourth time. Just in time for the ceremony, the parliament of the Chechnya republic proposed a constitutional amendment: the Russian president should not be allowed to govern two but three times in succession. Whether so or by the reintroduction of the monarchy, by appointment as leader of the nation for life as in some neighboring states – there is little doubt that Putin will never give up power. The fact that there are only two options for resignation, in handcuffs or in a hearse for the flawless Democrat, is now even clear to his friend Gerhard Schröder, who played a prominent role in the inauguration spectacle.
The German Social Democrat found himself in an illustrious society during the Russian State Act. Among the guests were the leader of the Biker gang night wolves, Alexander Saldostanow, who wore a white shirt under his leather armor on the occasion; the US action star and Russian new citizens Steven Seagal , a few mafia bosses and a whole bunch of colorful show and military freaks. Schröder stood in the first row between the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Prime Minister Medvedev and was the only one allowed to congratulate these two freshly kissed by the hand.
Cooperative, for sale, without any morality
Unlike in the United States, the Russian inauguration ceremony is not routine, it is staged every time and is meant to symbolize something different each time. The citizens are allowed to guess what it was exactly. For example, the Patriarch gave the ceremony a touch of coronation, Medvedev’s most devoted loyalty epitomized the retinue and the Chancellor a.D. the West, as the Kremlin gentleman likes to have it: cooperative, commercially, hedonistically and without any morality.
Six years ago, Putin was driven to the Kremlin through a deserted Moscow. This time the car was only about a hundred and fifty meters long, but it was not in one Mercedes but completed in a specially built car from Russian production. Where, Russian? The exterior was designed according to Rolls-Royce, the technology supplied by Porsche and Bosch. The evil tongues claim that the ride was only so short because the car, whose development is said to have cost about 250 million euros, is not ready for the road. But he should be the world’s longest official car of a head of state.
The drive through empty streets in 2012 had to do not least with mass protests against falsified parliamentary and presidential elections. Putin, behind all protests, the long arm of the state department suspected, had become extremely angry. Several hundred protesters were punished, the hunt for protesters took years, many were identified with the help of special facial recognition software based on their photos in the most popular Russian social network VK.com, some wrong, which in no way saved them from conviction. Incidentally, this should also Putin’s hatred Hillary Clinton , who was then Foreign Minister, explain.
Protests against the inauguration also took place this year; the motto was: “He is not our Tsar!” Alone that gave rise to ridicule: “If not who, who else?” The motto and the call to go on the street, came from the opposition politician Alexei Navalny , who wanted to compete in the presidential election against Putin, but had not been admitted. Other opposition forces did not support the protest. You can understand them well.