Палки и камни могут сломать мне кости, но слова никогда не причинят мне вреда.

Комментарий/Новости с изюминкой – Commentary/News with a Twist

Сказки могут стать явью, они могут случиться с тобой…

Now that I have your attention, let me explain.

In what many in the West consider a potential escalation of the unprovoked “conventional” war he has unleashed on Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his defense minister and top general, sitting at yet another table as long as a football field, to put Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces on high alert in a “special regime of combat duty.” As the generals listened, they sat motionless and stone-faced knowing that the move means the country’s nuclear weapons will now be increased to “readiness to launch.”

Putin’s rationale for taking a step closer to a nuclear confrontation? 

Western leaders “making aggressive statements directed at our country.”

In other words, Putin is ratcheting up his nuclear preparedness because world leaders are saying things about him he doesn’t like.

Clearly, when Putin was only “little Vlady,” he never heard the little ditty that all kids can recite, ”…”Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me…” Which is why, in the interests of world peace, I’m translating the saying into Russian hoping that someone in his inner circle, unafraid of being assassinated, will whisper this into his ear: “Палки и камни могут сломать мне кости, но слова никогда не причинят мне вреда

Apparently however, “little Vlady” didn’t miss one thing while growing up – Russian fairy tales (Народные Русские Сказки), particularly the ones compiled by Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Александр Николаевич Афанасьев) who was considered the Russian equivalent to the Brothers Grimm. 

In fact, “little Vlady” loved fairy tales so much, they’ve informed much of who he is today. Just this week, Putin used his own fairy tale to explain to the Russian public that the situation in Ukraine was not a “war” or an “invasion” but simply a limited defensive operation to ‘denazify’ a country whose president, Volodymyr Zelinsky, is Jewish.

(Wouldn’t you know it, the word describing Putin’s statement doesn’t exist in the Russian language; “ironic” is a “borrowed” word from the English: ироничный pronounced, ironichnyy)

Which explains the sub-head to this story, the Russian translation of “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you…” 

Of course, that little tune concludes with “…when you’re young at heart.” Since Putin has no heart, neither young nor old, his fairy tales can never come true.