Go to Russia for a few World Cup fixtures, get rip-roaring drunk, hit on a married Russian woman, and you are an instant “Russia expert,” fit for print in the bloody Guardian.
And don’t forget to thank the Russian security forces for their professionalism in keeping your jet-setting, neo-colonialist, neo-imperialist ass safe while you’re making an ass of yourself.
Huge congratulations must go to the law enforcement that’s been put in place to stop both the most fighty Russians and the most fighty English from making their presence felt. But those responsible for the headlines with TOO MANY CAPITAL LETTERS should be ashamed. Not just for denying England fans these experiences, but for allowing the Russian people to feel demonised, and indeed for allowing Putin to capitalise on this othering of the Russian people to support his us-against-them narrative. Every English person that has a positive interaction with a Russian person is a step further away from letting the people in power turn us against each other … is what I drunkenly mumbled into Anastasia’s ear a few minutes before I learned she had a husband, and a few minutes after she’d said there are no good computer hackers in Russia, and about 20 minutes after I’d been singing “Football’s coming home”. We’re all living in our own fantasies I suppose.
- “Huge congratulations must go to the law enforcement”: https://therussianreader.com/tag/oleg-sentsov/
- “Huge congratulations must go to the law enforcement”: https://therussianreader.com/tag/vladimir-balukh/
- “Huge congratulations must go to the law enforcement”: https://therussianreader.com/tag/yuri-dmitriev/
- “Huge congratulations must go to the law enforcement”: https://therussianreader.com/tag/russian-police-state/
- “Huge congratulations must go to the law enforcement”: https://therussianreader.com/tag/penza-petersburg-terrorism-case/
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I wish everyone could read this detailed interview with the fearless Russian human rights activist Anatoly Kalyapin and head of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture about the nearly ubiquitous use of torture by Russian law enforcement.
Under ordinary circumstances, I might even think about translating the interview and publishing it on this website.
But these are not ordinary circumstances. As the Putin regime ratchets up its “Great Terror Lite” apparatus, a frighteningly large segment of apparently educated and even liberal Russians and non-Russians have persuaded me that having fun, partying like it’s 1999, and staying glued to their TV sets watching World Cup fixtures trump petty considerations like human rights and international solidarity.
So, if you’d like to read this interview with a knowledgeable, brave man, run it through whatever online translation machine you prefer and see what miserable gobbledygook comes out the other end.
It has finally dawned on me how few people, both inside and outside Russia, really care to know anything about the real Russia, especially since Don Putin started kicking magical, psychedelic, multi-colored sand in their face with his twelve-billion-dollar “kicker conspiracy.”
I have no hope for a planet whose most powerful, empowered, and well-off inhabitants have such a strong will to be fooled and such an insuperable desire to kick up their heels as if they were teenagers. // TRR
Thanks to Lika Frenkel for the heads-up and the late Mark E. Smith (March 5, 1957–January 24, 2018) for not refusing his vision and sharing it with us so generously for so many years.
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Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
J. Hill’s satanic reign
Ass-lickers, Keegan’s Team
Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
In the marble halls of the charm school
How flair is punished
Under Marble Millichip, the F.A. broods
On how flair can be punished
Their guest is a Euro-State magnate
Corporate-u-lent
Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
In the booze club, George Best does rule
How flair is punished
His downfall was a blonde girl,
but that’s none of your business!
Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
Football fan at the bus stop
Stretched on the balls of his feet
In the Christmas rush
Had in his hands two lager cans
Talks to himself
At the back
At the top
But in the pavement on the club unit
Plastic, Slime, Partitions, Cocktail, Zig-Zag, Tudor Bar
Pat McCat. Pat McCat, the very famous sports reporter is
talking there.
Fans remember, you are abroad!
Remember the police are rough!
Remember the unemployed!
Remember my expense account!
Hot dogs and seat for Mr. Hogg!
Hot dogs and seat for Mr. Hogg
And his grotty spawn!
Lurid brochures for ground unit
How style is punished
Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
Remember, don’t collect with the rough
Kicker, Kicker Conspiracy
Kicker, destroy the facilities!
Kicker Conspiracy
Source: The Fall, “Kicker Conspiracy” (1983); lyrics courtesy of The Annotated Fall
The Russian Reader 