June 23, 2021

Putin's Pretty Pensive


Putin's Pretty Pensive
President Vlad chillin' in Siberia. Kremlin.ru

“Everything in the world displeases me, but, above all, my displeasure in everything displeases me.”

– “Darth Putin” on Twitter parodies Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments after his meeting with Joe Biden on Wednesday June 16

Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s one-on-one meeting with American President Joe Biden in Geneva on June 16, the Internet was awash with reactions to Putin’s declaration that there is “only the specter of” happiness in life.

Writer Jennifer Rubin started a thread commenting that “If you lived in kleptocracy with a 3rd world economy you'd think happiness was a mirage as well.” She then asked followers to interpret the maxim in a poll with “depressed fortune cookie,” “apt take on Russian life,” or “covid slump.”

American historian and author Michael Beschloss also could not resist a jab, adding a little literary criticism to the mix: “Doesn’t sound as if a Putin advice book on how to be happy would be a bestseller.” Twitter user Greg Dworkin did not find Putin’s comments too trivial, surmising, “It'd be War and Peace length, though.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Might Also Like

After I Leave, I'll Send You a Cup of Joe
  • September 01, 2009

After I Leave, I'll Send You a Cup of Joe

Where we look at the impact and impressions of Vice President Joe Biden's speech dissing Russia and its place in the world, just days after President Obama left Moscow and the "feel-good summit" with President Medvedev.
Presidential Patty Cakes
  • May 01, 2021

Presidential Patty Cakes

This spring, a ruckus roiling US-Russian relations was one for the history books: It was the first spat that involved a children’s playground taunt.
Schoolboy Spat
  • March 24, 2021

Schoolboy Spat

“During childhood, when we argued with each other in the yard, we’d say: It takes one to know one!” – Vladimir Putin comments on Joe Biden’s belief that the President of the Russian Federation is a “killer.”
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955