Polittechnologist: Ahmadinejad is Better than Putin

Ahmadinejad is Better than Putin By the Polittechnologist It being Christmastime, I would have liked to write about something pleasant. For example, about good people. Today, I’ve got three candidates – Hitler, Putin, and the current president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Do not look so surprised, dear reader. Hitler is not here by accident. If Time magazine at one time let his photograph grace its cover, that means that at one time he was considered a good person, the way Putin is today.

History has already provided us a full and multi-faceted assessment of Hitler, so we won’t return to this historical figure any more here. There are just too many bad temptations and thoughts that arise. For example, why is it that you can buy Mein Kampf in the center of Rome, but not in the center of Moscow? Guess why.No, this has nothing to do with the struggle against fascism. It is to protect the rights of plagiarists. An educated Italian, contemplating the horrors of fascism, has a chance to familiarize himself with the sources of this ideology, in order not to fall into it anew. And if a politician in Italy starts to quote from Mussolini or Hitler and to present these quotes as his own, then he will be instantly unmasked.A politician in Russia can boldly quote both Hitler and Goebbels. It is prohibited in our country to familiarize oneself with the primary sources, and so nobody acknowledges that all those fabulous political slogans are actually citations from the ideologists of fascism. I, for example, found a huge multitude of such in the pre-election materials of one of the parties that has made it into the current State Duma. If you like, I can share them with you later.But I digress. Let’s return to the subject of good people. Putin appeared on the cover of Time. Does it follow from this that, according to the magazine editors’ logic, he is a good person? For me, yes, because last year, they had me and many of my friends – users of the internet – on the cover. But then, they had had Hitler there too, didn’t they? Well, in that case, perhaps they had other criteria for selection, and bad people can make the cover as well.From all of the above it follows that Putin is better than Hitler, because a lot of time has passed and history has put everyone in their rightful places. The only thing I don’t understand why it was that three residents of Ekaterinburg were arrested when they came out to a rally at city hall with a banner that said just this (“Putin is better than Hitler” – see photos). Perhaps those who arrested them really are a bunch of blackguards who think otherwise.The current president of Iran is often compared to Hitler by the West. He denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map of the world. I think that such a president certainly ought to be punished – after all, he’s not talking about peace, but about war. But despite all this, I would like to say that he’s better than Putin. And you know why? Let me try and explain.Yes, they’ve got the death penalty in Iran and nobody’s hiding this fact. In Russia, they don’t have it, but in Russia they kill suspects and convicts in prisons and camps and isolators without any trial or investigation. They kill them during interrogations; they kill political opponents, they kill journalists. But in Russia, there’s a moratorium on the death penalty, so it’s just something people don’t talk about. And Putin doesn’t talk about it.Yes, the Iranian leadership adheres to a vehemently anti-Jewish policy. This is very bad. They don’t have such a thing in Russia. In Russia, the fascists on the street can now catch a person and eat him alive. If you don’t believe it, take a look at the Russian news wires. In Russia (excuse me for repeating myself), the political slogans of Germany of the 1930s and 1940s are being actively used. And Putin doesn’t talk about it.And finally, if the Iranian people get fed up with their president, then the Iranian people will elect a new one on – as paradoxical as this may sound – a democratic basis. Because that’s the way it’s been in this country since 1979 and the people have gotten used to it and consider it proper. And Ahmadinejad is not going to be lobbying for his successor, he is not going to actively use all of the television channels in order to stay in power. Believe me, there’s not going to be any «For Ahmadinejad!» movement in Iran, because in this country, with all its Islamist radicalism, such accolades are considered indecent in relation to a mere mortal, even if he be president a hundred times over. And it is precisely this sense of decency, unfortunately, that Vladimir Putin – so idolized by the politically illiterate journalists of Time – lacks.I think that here too, history will put everything in its rightful place. Have a great Christmas!