Growing Up In The Shadow Of ‘Brother Putin’
By Marc Bennetts
11/6/15, 5:30 AM CET
The latest hip-hop hit in Russia is a bass-speaker-shaking tribute to the ex-KGB officer who has ruled the country for over 15 years. “My best friend is Vladimir Putin,” raps Russian star Timati, in a slick video released in October in honor of Putin’s 63rd birthday. In the background, rappers in Putin masks chill on Red Square. “The whole country is down with him … He’s cool, a superhero.”
I was marveling at the video when my six-year-old daughter, Masha, walked into the room. “My brother,” she said, glancing at the screen and smiling. “Putin is my brother! He’s a good guy.” (She also muttered some other strangely affectionate stuff about Putin’s bald head.) Unsure how to respond, I said nothing, and hoped she wouldn’t say it again.
But she did. And often.
A few weeks later, I took Masha to one of Moscow’s excellent theaters. Halfway through the 6-plus-rated performance, a conjuror stretched out his hands and addressed the audience of pre-teens. “I am the great and all-powerful…” He paused, for dramatic effect. A boy in the front row finished his sentence for him. “Putin!” he said. Masha beamed with delight.
Russia is soaked in Putinism. And children are clearly not immune. Granted, the Putin mania that exists in Russia today can’t be compared to the cult of personality surrounding Soviet tyrant Stalin. There are — as yet — no Putin statues in the squares of Russia’s cities. Children are not taught, as they were under Stalin, to thank the “national leader” for their “happy childhoods.” And Putin expresses, publically at least, a staid disapproval of attempts to glorify his person.
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http://www.politico.eu/article/moscow-childhood-russia-vladimir-putin-birthday-superhero/
