March 22, 2018

Russian Election Special with Winners, Losers, and Shavers


Russian Election Special with Winners, Losers, and Shavers
Voting, shaving and dancing
(all in the name of the election)

1. Putin put in power! STOP THE PRESSES! Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President of Russia this Sunday. Putin won 76.6 percent of the vote, with 67.47 percent of Russians voting in the election. This will be his fourth and (presumably) last term as president. The next runner up, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, won approximately 13 percent of the vote. This landslide victory aptly follows the occasionally mudslinging (and sometimes water-slinging) campaigns that led up to it.

Photo:  www.kremlin.ru

2. Grudinin’s 13 percent is turning into a hairy situation. He promised blogger Yuri Dud to shave his (impressive) mustache if he did not get 15 percent of the vote on Sunday. Grudinin is trying to create his own shaving grace by claiming that he will only shave if Dud states on camera that the election was fair. Dud recently tweeted a photo of a razor, reminding Grudinin of his original promise. Either way, this will be a close shave for Grudinin.

Photo: www.kremlin.ru

3. Keep calm and waltz on: that’s the message from a protest in Yekaterinburg. Approximately 100 activists, frustrated with the predicted election outcome, waltzed on a frozen pond prior to the election to spread a message of optimism to the country. How did they convey this message? At one moment in the dance as they pause and step apart, the words “f*ck it, we’re dancing” can be read if looking at the dancers’ positions from above. It may only take two to tango, but, then again, you can’t spell anything fun with only two people.

In Odder News:
  • This election-themed costume contest in Omsk was just as competitive as any election (an iPhone was on the line)

  • Bubbles emanated from a St. Petersburg voting booth for 20 minutes: talk about blowing away the competition!

  • This Simpson-style cartoon reflects on the past six years of Russia under Putin

Quote of the week:

"Do you think that I will stay here until I'm 100 years old? No!"

—President Putin, after being asked if he would run again in six years.

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.

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