OK, the table is almost ready, my friends. Here it is:

I will be adding a couple more things but mostly this is it. We also have a separate table with beverages. The only beverage on the table is the traditional Russian kisel with gooseberries.

The goal was to make the table colorful and not boring and I think that goal was achieved.

This is the biggest party I have ever thrown. Well, it is actually the only party I have ever thrown, so we’ll see how it goes.

Two of Putin’s aides have given a semi-clandestine interview to a progressive journalist (progressive in this context means anti-Putin).

Among many other things, the Putinoids mentioned that Putin wants Hillary to win the next presidential election.

We all know what this means, right? One of the oldest rules of the organization Putin represents is “Always say the exact opposite if what you mean.” Whenever Stalin, for instance, would say, “The USSR is looking for peace,” people with even half a brain knew he was telling them to prepare for war. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of mutual non-aggression meant that war with Germany was inevitable, etc.

So Putin is afraid of Hillary winning. This is very interesting – and it makes sense, too. Now we need to put aside whatever feelings we have about Hillary and make sure she wins. Whatever it is that bugs you about her – and obviously there’s a lot, I know – Putin is worse.

Putin’s great advantage is that he understands that the nation- state is dead while the so-called Western leaders still haven’t managed to catch up and are speaking to him in a dead language of an obsolete state form.

A new world order will follow the creation of the new state-form, as it always does. And whoever learns to adapt to it first will own the world. It doesn’t seem that the US stands a chance of winning this contest for now because you can’t win if you are not even aware that the game is on.

Like in soccer, the team that fails to show up automatically loses.

Putin has now said that Kazakhstan is also not a real state. People in Kazakhstan have seen what Putin’s “Ukraine is not a state” has meant for Ukraine and are panicking.

Things are getting really bad in Ukraine. I mean, REALLY bad. I can’t take in the news any longer but every time I do catch a snippet of a news digest from Ukraine in my blog roll, all I want to do is crawl into a corner and wail, loudly and unproductively.

Two Ukrainian officers blew themselves up with a grenade to avoid being captured by the Russians. Because they know what the Russians do with POWs.

People in Mariupol are digging trenches around their city. Because they know Putin wants them. In fucking 2014 they are digging trenches.

The Russian journalist who reported on the burials of Russian soldiers killed in combat in Ukraine was viciously beaten up in Russia. The families of the fallen Russian soldiers are eagerly agreeing bit to mourn the dead in exchange for some miserable handout.

The Ukrainian army could fight the terrorists. And it did, and it was winning. But now that the regular troops of the Russian army have crossed the border in massive numbers, it’s all useless. All Russia has is the army. And it’s enormous.

And who’s to say that if Putin is frustrated any more than he’s been in Ukraine that he won’t order a nuclear strike against the Western part of Ukraine?

In the meanwhile, Obama still can’t even bring himself to refer to what Russia is doing as war and invasion. That’s all anybody is asking of him at this point, but even this small relief is not to be granted to Ukrainians.

And now let me tell you when Russians doomed their project of establishing democracy to failure. If you are not from the FSU, you don’t know this stuff. Nobody writes about this, there is no interesting analysis anywhere. Only the fortunate readers of Clarissa’s Blog have access to this information.

In 1996, a crucial election was taking place in Russia. Yeltsin was running for president but it was becoming increasingly obvious that he would lose. The majority of people in Russia hated capitalism, hated the new society, couldn’t adapt to the market economy, and wanted to go back to what they had before 1991.

Yeltsin’s opponent was the leader of Russia’s Communist Party. All of the progressives (called Democrats because they stood for democracy) in the country were terrified he would win and then take the country back to the Soviet model. The very existence of democracy was at stake. So what was there to do? Well, the answer seemed obvious: falsify the elections.

This was a very paradoxical situation: democracy had to be saved by trampling on the most basic principle of democracy. Everybody knew that this was wrong, but then it was for such a great cause!

“Just this once!” people said, argued, whispered, thought. “We will do it just once but after we repel the threat of a Communist rising to power we will forever and ever uphold the principles of democracy.”

The election was falsified, Yeltsin won. The falsification was very obvious, blatant, and public. But the purpose was achieved, democracy’s survival was guaranteed, and the people of Russia could from now on dedicate themselves to conducting honest and clean elections. Right?

Wrong.

There is a price to pay for everything. And a tiny act of cheating today – even for a very good cause – will bring major consequences in its stead that you will be dealing with for a long time to come.

Russia’s Democrats who falsified the elections back in 1996 didn’t manage to save democracy. Just the opposite. Yeltsin lost his legitimacy and his power and just a couple of years later was forced to step down and appoint as his successor an ugly little KGB agent whose name nobody in Russia even knew.

Today, of course, we all know this KGB agent. His falsified elections have become famous world over. But many people don’t know that the horrible mess Russia is now began with a single act of dishonesty committed for a very, very noble purpose.

There is no “pro-Israel West”, “pro-Palestine West” or “pro-Ukraine West.” There is only “pro-chewing contentedly in an ecstasy of consumerism West.” 

Mind you, I’m all for “pro-chewing contentedly in an ecstasy of consumerism” as a way of life. It’s a very respectable life choice. But it bugs me when this choice masks as anything other than what it is. 

We are a very chic little town. My hair-dresser, the one who works at a salon next to the gastropub, is an art conoisseuse and, together with her third husband, has amassed a large collection of abstract paintings and Mexican pottery.

But I am even more chic because she didn’t know what a Steampod is and I not only know it but have been using one for months. So even though I’m only on my second husband, I think I win in terms of sophistication.

I don’t need an alarm clock because every morning I’m awakened by the sounds of very loud tinkling. The sound is N moving a spoon in his teacup very aggressively. This is a big house and I’m hard of hearing but still I hear the spoon every morning.

These are the costs of living with a Russian. At the same time, he gets very alarmed – as, I believe, only a Russian man can do – when he sees that I don’t have a bouquet of fresh flowers around me at all times. So I’m willing to overlook the spoon.

By the way, every time we go to a restaurant or a store together and answer the inevitable question about where we are from, waiters and cashiers look very alarmed, so we have to explain that we are not planning to get into a fight because we have already hashed out the Ukraine / Russia situation.