Hannes Rumm: Volodya the boy threat and Vlad the terror ruler

Hannes Rumm. Photo: Diana Unt

The 91-year-old film director Roman Polanski’s comedy “The Palace” has just been screened, which takes place on New Year’s Eve, January 1, 2000 in a luxury hotel in Switzerland.

From every corner of the world, filthy rich ridiculous characters travel there.

One of them is a young Russian oligarch with a couple of wardrobe-sized security guards and a raft of prostitutes. Suddenly, a Russian businessman freezes in front of the TV, because President Boris Yeltsin names 48-year-old Vladimir Putin as his successor live. In the feature film, the director uses excerpts from Yeltsin’s historic televised address.

“Who else is like that?” wonders the nouveau riche.

The whole of Russia was similarly stunned. Although Yeltsin, who was drunk and screwed up the economy, was unpopular as president, it was expected that, according to Russian custom, he would leave the Kremlin on his feet. But suddenly he put the unknown boy threat Putin on the trestle.

The Putin of the beginning of the century was visibly insecure and looked miserable. By now, Putin’s external image is polished to perfection, his body language radiates arrogance. No wonder, the sole ruler of Russia has been on the throne for a whole human generation.

This weekend, Putin will extend his powers in an “election” for another six years. On the one hand, this is a purely formal activity, because Putin has had no competitors for a long time. The president has bought off both the communists and the Zhirinovskys, who are only pretending to be the opposition, with a good life.

Few have dared to stand up to Putin, and the most determined of them, Alexei Navalny, died or was killed in prison shortly before the “presidential election”.

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2024-03-16 06:07:43
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