'He's not a person, he's a biorobot' How State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin....

[BeckyDem]

‘He’s not a person, he’s a biorobot’ How State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin mastered the art of pleasing Putin

12:47 pm, April 11, 2022
Source: Meduza


Since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has been even more vocal about his devotion to Vladimir Putin than usual. In daily posts and speeches, Volodin has denounced public figures who oppose the war as “traitors,” demanded Russia be paid for natural gas and other goods in rubles, and described U.S. President Joe Biden as “sick and miserable.” All of these statements have had one purpose: to please the president. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev tells the story of how Volodin learned to understand the Russian leader’s mood — and became a role model for other pro-government politicians.

There’s a story that’s been passed around by Russian State Duma deputies for almost 20 years now. The story goes that at a Duma session in the early 2000s, then-Vice Speaker Artur Chilingarov from the United Russia party tried to give the floor to one of the parliamentarians: “And now, Deputy Volodin!” Then came the reply: “Be more specific — we’re all Volodins!” The joke is that all of the deputies were Putin lackeys: “Volodin” in Russian can mean “belonging to Volodya,” and Volodya is a nickname for Vladimir.

At a State Duma session on April 11, 2003, Chilingarov did call for “Deputy Volodin.” He didn’t, however, receive any jokes in response; the Parliament was nowhere near full of Putin supporters — yet. The upper chamber didn’t have a strong majority until after the elections in December 2003.

There was one person, though, who definitely supported Putin already: Saratov native Vyacheslav Volodin, a member of the electoral bloc Fatherland – All Russia (OVR). In 2001, Volodin was one of the most vocal proponents of a merger between OVR and the Unity bloc; the result was the pro-Putin United Russia party.


https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/04/11/he-s-not-a-person-he-s-a-biorobot

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Important insight into the Russian Putin political cult.

Volodin sounds like McCarthy in Trump world.

[Igel]

2. Imposing US categories on another culture is risky.

It's like saying there are animals, vegetables, and minerals.

And only plants can photosynthesize.

When you encounter protista or fungi, your categories collapse into incoherence.

And let's not even mention psychosis-inducing green sea slugs.

As a young adult, the binary opposition that prevailed in Soviet-Russian thinking was nationalist or fascist versus bol'shevik.

Then in the '90s I had to wrap my head around the idea of the Limonovtsy, the "natsboli", the "nationalist bol'sheviks." Knowing full well what national socialism was like in the 1890s when Hitler was a pre-schooler. Yet they merged nazism and bol'shevism.

Like South Asian chili pickle on a hamburger with ketchup and onion, it works. Or beef stew with corn tortillas.

McCarthy exposed. Volodin's a lickspittle. Such have always been in Russia. They always say only good things about the rulers, and strongly object to anybody opposing or gain-saying the guy in power. The guy in charge must always be 100% right.

That's stupid.

Natsboli? Sure. They think it's coherent, my job is to figure out *how* it's coherent. Green sea slugs? Absolutely, cute little nudibranchs that they are. But where do they get chloroplasts and still be animals? Protista? My favorite genus is myxomycetes, gotta love slime molds, millions of one-celled creatures that join to be one creature with millions of cellular nuclei. (What? Huh?)

Life. When you think you have it sussed out, you realize you're just waking up with your face in cat fur ... and the cat's been sleeping next to you with its head close to your hip.

Gotta be flexible and open minded.

As for McCarthy in Trump world? He'd be entirely out of place, no point of overlap.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. OK!