This fall, an American heavyweight mixed martial artist found himself in the middle of a Russian political scandal – one that was the first chink in Vladimir Putin’s Teflon political image, all the more significant since it was broadcast live on television.
Jeff Monson came to challenge Russian fighter Fyodor Yemelyanenko in Moscow’s biggest stadium, Olimpiysky. Prime Minister Putin showed up unexpectedly, sat close to the ring, and enjoyed the spotlight. But when he entered the ring and took the microphone after the fight was over, a low but thunderous murmur of “boos” forced Putin to pause; parts of his speech were almost inaudible. Some in the audience also whistled, according to YouTube clips made from the stands, and, according to eyewitness accounts, expressed clear displeasure at the sight of Putin in the ring.
The internet exploded. Russians couldn’t believe that Putin - still officially considered a popular leader - had suffered such a public embarrassment. His press service went into damage control mode, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov arranging a conference call to explain that the audience had in fact been booing the American fighter Jeff Monson, who was being dragged out of the ring with a broken leg. Meanwhile, Channel One edited the audio of scenes shown in its late night new broadcast, cutting out the whistles and leaving in the clapping for Yemelyanenko.
Fans of the sport took such offense at allegations that they would whistle and boo a beaten man after a fair fight that they inundated Monson’s Facebook page with thousands of comments, asking him not to believe Putin’s PR blitz. The page was covered with comments like “Jeff, you are a class, [sic] and Putin is a dung!”
Monson did not comment on the booing incident, although he did recount other experiences from his time in Russia, including one incident where he rescued a homeless man in the Moscow subway from two police officers, and another where his lip was sown up after the fight with “chicken wire” at a public hospital.
Putin, meanwhile, was a no-show at an anti-drug concert in Olimpiysky two days later, where he was widely expected. Bloggers quipped that he may have to either avoid live events or bring along a cheering section of Nashi youth activists to block out any unfortunate noise.
In November, excerpts from a new book, Operation United Russia, were published in several Russian publications. The book chronicles the rise of Russia’s majority party and is written by journalist Ilya Zhegulev (Forbes) and Lyudmila Romanova (Vedomosti). The book was set to hit the stores just before the December 4 elections, in which United Russia was highly favored (but ended up doing far worse than expected). Five days before the polls opened, and less than a week after the book was launched, author Ilya Zhegulev wrote that online stores like Ozon had stopped taking orders for the book. At press time, ozon.ru on its webpage said the book is “out of stock” and a new delivery was expected only on December 24th. [bit.ly/operationUR]
Excerpt:
Here Putin’s advisor Vladislav Surkov chastises unruly parliament members for voting against laws they didn’t like. The authors quote the recollection of politician Anatoly Yermolin, who was in the room:
“Who do you think you are to press buttons like that? Was it not clear to you: what it says in the instructions is exactly how you should be pressing the buttons. You think you are State Duma deputies?” Surkov looked out at his audience. “Each one of you owes me! I vouched for you, asked for you. You will do whatever I tell you to do.”
“It seems when you go on the internet now that everyone is in a very gloomy mood, that life is bad, that life didn’t turn out as planned... In essence, a hundred people, who are working for a long time online, they are creating a certain informational atmosphere that you could easily take for the opinions of millions of people.”
- Maria Kislitsyna, leader of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, to Lenta.ru, arguing that life in Russia is getting better, and that opposition forces have infiltrated online discussions, sowing discord.
A Twitter flash mob congratulating Putin on his birthday this fall turned the hashtag #спасибопутинузаэто (thank you Putin for this) into the third most popular trend on the global microblogging website, to the wonder of non-Cyrillic users. The tag was first used by pro-Kremlin activist Vladimir Burmatov on Putin’s birthday (October 7), in a sycophantic verse evoking the Soviet style of thanking the party leader for even the most mundane pleasures of life:
В москве тепло и солнце. Лето!
#СпасибоПутинузаэто!
In Moscow it’s warm and the sun is shining!
Thank you Putin for this!
and
Обама нервно чешет репу
Obama is nervously scratching his head
But his initiative was quickly picked up by funnier blog-poets:
Вернулся Брежнев с того света –
Brezhnev has returned from the dead
Рамзан* купил Кабриолетто,
Ramzan bought a Cabriolet
Nearly two months after Putin turned 59, the hashtag is still popular, though no longer in the top five Twitter trends. Meanwhile, a new Twitter user, @ThankYouPutin, arose out of the trend and has nearly 2000 followers.
* Ramzan Kadyrov, president of Chechnya.
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