As the World Editor of News Growl, it fell to me to write an article on yesterday's election for the presidency of the Russian Federation. Surprise, surprise, Vladimir Putin won with roughly 76% of the vote.
Of course, it was no surprise. But my gosh, some of the tactics that Putin supporters used to get out the vote were really weird. Lingerie models? Nice to look at, of course, but why use them to promote voting? Is this what Russian men need in order to take part in the political process? Yet that is exactly what Maxim magazine did. Their editor makes it clear (as quoted in my article on the Russian election result) that he wasn't really comfortable with the idea but had no choice. It was a "compromise" he had to make. That's weird, but by far the weirdest thing I came across was an unofficial but professionally produced video that drew on racism, homophobia, and paranoia to urge Russians to vote on Sunday. Imagine waking up one morning to find military conscription officers at your door (even though you are 52). That's bad, but one of the men at the door is black! Oh no! But it gets worse, there's a gay man in your kitchen. You have to house him because the government passed a law that forces people to take untaken gay men into their homes. Okay, this last part doesn't make any sense, but that's what the video says. Then, it says if the gay man doesn't find a partner in time, you yourself (presumably a God-fearing heterosexual) will have to become his partner. Frankly, when I read about this video I didn't believe what I read about it. Surely there was some sort of cultural miscommunication going on here. But then I found this video from Radio Free Europe which shows part of it and it's all true. Crazy
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AuthorSteve has many disparate and unconnected interests. This, he thinks, entitles him to claim the label "Renaissance Man." Archives
March 2019
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