My parents sometimes allow the pro-Russian media influence them way too much.
“What is happening? What is going on in the US?” my father asks me over the phone in a very alarmed voice as he calls me from Montreal.
“Huh?” I ask, trying to wake up.
“We just read this article by a Russian journalist who lives in the US. He says everything is horrible! The country is on the verge of a war! People are buying enormous amounts of food because they fear that food supplies will run out! Are you OK? How are you doing???”
(We speak on the phone every day, mind you.)
“I’m fine,” I says. “Everything is great.”
“But is it true that people are stocking up on food in case of war?”
“Well,” I say, “N. and I went to the supermarket the other day and people were buying quite a lot of food. And we did buy a bunch of stuff as well. But that isn’t because we expect a civil war but because we like food. And so do most Americans.”
“Ah, so things are not horrible? You are OK? Here, I will give the phone to your mother,” he says. “You need to reassure her.”
“What is happening? What is going on in the US?” my mother asks, sounding even more alarmed than my father.
And the whole dialogue repeats itself.
The Russian media are selling this spiel about the horrible, mean and miserable Americans who are about to die out massively (and good riddance, too!) like there is no tomorrow. This is understandable because Putin needs to present himself as the savior of Russians from the nasty US.
I find the whole thing hilarious.
Clarissa's Blog 
Was there any reason given why we’d be on the verge of civil war? That seems like such a wild claim to make without any evidence.
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The upcoming elections are very polarized, so people fantasize. 🙂
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Also our love of drama and need to be the center of attention (at least the version of us our infotainment media presents to to the world) gives everyone the impression that things here are constantly on the verge of explosion.
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“Also our love of drama and need to be the center of attention (at least the version of us our infotainment media presents to to the world) gives everyone the impression that things here are constantly on the verge of explosion.”
– So true! I read my permanently panicky blogroll and then go outside and see a completely different world. I still haven’t figured out why Americans love drama so much. 🙂
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I haven’t either and I live here. I’ve been around people like that most of my life, and I can’t understand where they get the energy. Emotional drama just wears me out.
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That cuts two ways. The latest business news from Bloomberg (American media) today says that 25 trillion ruble’s worth of Brezhnev era bonds are coming due which represents half of Russia’s GDP and the country will soon go bankrupt.
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1248140–brezhnev-era-bonds-haunt-putin-as-russian-investors-hunt-785-billion
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The Russian Federation never chose to honor the financial obligations of the Soviet Union to its citizens, so I’m at a loss why it would suddenly honor some of them now. In 1991 when people lost every dime of their savings that they made in the USSR, the Russian government didn’t care a straw. This is still a huge gripe of the confused folks who don’t understand that the roubles they’d saved in the USSR were nothing but a bunch of painted pieces of paper that were not supported by any economic reality. I always find such people hugely tiresome.
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“The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Russia last month to pay Yuriy Lobanov, a septuagenarian from the Ivanovo region near Moscow, 37,150 euros ($46,497 U.S.) in compensation for the 1982 notes he held, or about 140 times the average monthly pension….The Justice Ministry, which represents Russia in Strasbourg, said in a faxed statement that it honours all judgments by the European Court of Human rights, adding that the Lobanov ruling only applies to the 1982 notes. “
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“The Justice Ministry, which represents Russia in Strasbourg, said in a faxed statement that it honours all judgments by the European Court of Human rights”
– Oh yes, they have said that. Now, of course, they will drown the entire thing in paperwork waiting for the gentleman in question to die. I’m sorry for sounding cynical but my opinion of the Russia government is not high.
But, of course, let’s hope that it will decide to honor the obligation and ends up going bankrupt. That would be a pretty pickle.
(I always wanted to use the expression “a pretty pickle” on this blog. 🙂 )
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