Stumping for Trump, Lynchin' Clinton

The electoral season is in full swing in Russia — or rather, the Russian press is in high-gear reporting, commenting, and interpreting the US presidential elections.

Most of it is easy to follow, since Russian journalists use either borrowed words or descriptive translations. First there were праймериз (primaries), also known as голосование по партийным спискам (voting for the party candidates) and совещания членов политической партии для назначения кандидата (caucuses, literally meetings of members of political parties to pick a candidate). Those events produced two предполагаемые кандидаты (presumptive candidates), sometimes called фактические кандидаты (de facto candidates).

Now that the campaigns are underway, the coverage in Russia turns out to provide excellent Russian lessons. Since you know what’s happening, you can easily follow the news and improve and expand your Russian. It’s like watching a sub-titled film in real time.

For example, candidate Trump is constantly putting his foot in his mouth, which is described most commonly as опозориться (to do something shameful): Трамп опозорился на весь мир своим незнанием географии (Trump’s ignorance of geography made him look terrible in front of the whole world.) Another word used a lot is перепалка (back-and-forth): Однопартийцы критикуют Трампа за перепалку с отцом убитого в Ираке солдата (Trump’s fellow party members are criticizing him for his heated exchange with the father of a soldier killed in Iraq.)

The next lesson has to do with how colleagues react when you squabble publicly and say stupid things, that is, отмежеваться (to distance oneself): В воскресенье “тяжеловесы” Республиканской партии поспешили отмежеваться от заявлений Трампа (On Sunday the heavyweights in the Republican party rushed to distance themselves from Trump’s statements.) You can also use the term дистанцироваться: От Трампа поспешили дистанцироваться многие коллеги по партии (Many of his party colleagues rushed to distance themselves from Trump).

Actually, in this election дистанцироваться seems to be a key concept. You can disavow your own words: Только вчера Дональд Трамп заявил, что женщин нужно наказывать за аборт. Затем он попытался дистанцироваться от своего заявления (Just yesterday Donald Trump stated that women should be punished for having an abortion. He then tried to disavow his own words.) Or you can weasel out of a relationship: Трамп постарался дистанцироваться от Владимира Путина (Trump tried to distance himself from Vladimir Putin).

In the age of instant replay and social media, good luck with that.

If journalists struggle to report on Trump’s bumbling while presenting him as more of a friend of Russia, the coverage of Hillary Clinton is much harsher. Here one of the most common words is обвинять (to accuse), combined with a long list of purported sins: Клинтон обвиняют в том, что солгала под присягой (Clinton is accused of perjury).

The other key words have to do with her critical attitude toward Russia. There are a lot of ways of saying this: Хиллари недвусмысленно позиционирует себя как противника России (Hillary is clearly positioning herself as an opponent of Russia). Приход Хиллари Клинтон к власти может иметь весьма жёсткие последствия для России (If Hillary Clinton comes to power, there might be very dire consequences for Russia). Она является апологетом антироссийской политики и непримиримого критиком Кремля (She is an apologist for an anti-Russian policy and is an implacable critic of the Kremlin).

But other than making trouble for Russia, you might be surprised to hear that she only has two policy goals: борьба за права ЛГБТ-сообщества и меры по противодействию дальнейшим изменениям климата (to fight for the rights of the LGBT community and take measures to counteract climate change).

Fasten your seatbelts, folks, it’s going to be a rocky ride to November 8.