Russia has hired Borat as PR-Czar

[Michael Denner]

If you didn't catch yesterday's WaPo insert from Российская газета, you missed something so redolent of late 1980s propaganda that I initially thought it MUST be satire... 

 

Fortunately, the whole thing is available here:

http://publishing.yudu.com/A23p4/rbth-30-08-07/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Frbth.rg.ru%2Findex.php%3Fsection%3Dep

 

(The interface is really quite cool.)

 

It strikes me that the title of the pub, "Russia Beyond the Headlines," does not even make sense, logically or linguistically... The articles are written in a really wonderfully funny version of someone's idea of English... 

 

 "After years of scrutiny, Russian Currency Gets its Own Symbol" (Scrutiny? why The weird Capitalization?)

"Impressions of the Train Travel from Moscow to Chelyabinsk" 

"Maria Sharapova is yet to play for her home country"

(You need to read these articles with your best Boris Badenov accent to get the full comedic effect:: "Mytee Mahsha. Shee leeves een Yu. Ehs. yeet ees praht to bee Raaahshun."). It defies all explanation why the press organ of Putin & Co. cannot find a native speaker of English to rescue the prose in a publication that probably cost close to $500K to print & publish. 

The articles themselves are predictable bits of propaganda -- particularly the political articles (e.g., the one on the "the opposition's disarray") and the attempt to demonstrate press freedoms in Russia. 

 

Ah, the good ol' days are back again...

~mad

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
   Dr. Michael A. Denner
   Editor, Tolstoy Studies Journal
   Director, University Honors Program

   
   Contact Information:
      Russian Studies Program
      Stetson University
      Campus Box 8361
      DeLand, FL 32720-3756
      386.822.7381 (department)
      386.822.7265 (direct line)
      386.822.7380 (fax)

      www.stetson.edu/~mdenner

 


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