“. . . so, but, well, again . . .” By Gene W. Edwards. Posted 3/19/2024.

The press spokesman for the Kremlin was on video this week, being hounded by a group of reporters — actually one reporter. He was asking a 12-part question about what happened to Navalny just before the Russian presidential election on March 15–17. His inquiry could not have been bolder, more fearless, less on point, or less complete! Could have he have been “beheaded” on the spot?! I wondered if it was a foreign reporter, to have such nerve! Some 20 Russian-looking reporters, and such, were all around and they all looked at him like, “I wish I had had the nerve to ask that question! He’s gonna get it!”

They didn’t; only one of them did. Gulag is not a Russian beer.

The press spokesman, a tall blonde guy with the mustachioed look of a Richard Branson, didn‘t know what to do with the question (inferring Putin had Navalny killed), so as a wind-up, he tried to think out what to rejoin, and ended up saying “. . . so, but, well, again . . .“ as a preface, like a lipless mynah bird just recently taught to speak . . . that little word salad in order for him to have a moment of transition to concoct a pointlessly insulting fabrication of the truth.

And that’s about all the truth you’ll get out of Russia: “so, but, well, again” (and again, and again). What else is new? And you can’t leave. Living in autocratic Russia is like living in an outhouse with no toilet paper.

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