This macabre news, which has come from the birthplace of my grandfather, made me think about the question of just what exactly is “Putin’s Plan”? I never did find an answer. On the official website of United Russia – the party that had first proposed this slogan back in the day – there is no information. On the website of the Government and President of Russia, there are only links to voluminous speeches by Putin that go on and on for many pages, but to understand something real from them is difficult indeed. What we get here is complete absurdity – the slogan exists, but what it signifies – does not.
In its time, there were many such empty slogans in the Soviet Union, for example “The People and the Party are one” or “Breadbasket of the Motherland”, “Komsomol trip voucher” or “Socialist competition”. Simple citizens in the Union knew full well that not a single slogan has anything whatsoever to do with actual reality, in the same way as billions of Zimbabwean dollars have nothing to do with the real economy.