27 November 2007

talking politics-edited





Above are the first set of political signs: "Putin's Plan is the Victory of Russia" . A teacher at school joked that they'd just taken all of Stalin's signs and changed the name. The vertical pix are about the plan. The one with writing says I-You-We. (There were more but I don't want to bore you.)


And, these are the new signs. It says: Putin's Russia, United and Independent. The vertical picture is of the footballer I mentioned before. I'm still working on identifying the others in the first photo. They're all featured on individual posters around town so they must be recognizable. The footballer's slogan says (I think) St. Petersburg chooses Putin. Петербург has been graffiti-ed out on other signs I've seen. Apparently, not all of St. P chooses Putin.

Click here for an article worth checking out in today's St. Petersburg Times about last weekend's protests. Interesting, eh?

Another teacher told me there is a big sign near her house that makes her feel like she's in the novel 1984. It says, "Putin is watching you." I asked her to take a picture of it for us!

I've been told that Putin values his reputation as a man of honor too much to manipulate things so that he can stay in office. His wife, however, is rumored to be a possibility. Sheesh. As if I didn't have enough of those husband-wife politicians! (You guessed it--not a fan of the Clint*ns.)Didn't Argentina just elect the president's wife, too?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for some current events and pictures of where you live.

Beckie

ferenge mama said...

cool! great to see the photos.

What does the graffiti mean?

Jenni said...

Very interesting!

Jim said...

Kate - I think you did a great job on the translations. The only one I would translate differently is the sign about which you were a little unsure: "Putin's Russia: United and Invincible."

It's interesting that Putin's campaign sounds so much like rallying the troops for battle.

While I was in Saint Petersburg, someone handed me a campaign brochure for United Russia. I took it because I figured it would be good reading practice. Well, yes, AND because I wanted to see what it had to say. :) I noted that it contained quite a lot of feel-good fluff and sloganeering, but not much substance. I guess politics are played similarly anyway in the world...

Thanks for the photos. It's amazing to see ice in the Neva only a few weeks after such glorious summer-like weather.

Anonymous said...

Just checking in again to see if you had any accreditation updates!

kate said...

Jim, my Russian friends says it's "United and Independent." It *is* interesting...especially since they're attempting to get people rallying around a leader who is leaving office in March.

Jim said...

Kate - cool. See, that's what I like about talking with actual Russian speakers-- they're better than my Большой Русско-Английский Словарь any day because they live the language every day. Thanks for getting the real translation!