Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, March 27, 2014. Ekaterina Shtukina/RIA Novosti/Pool/Reuters
Julia Davis, Daily Beast: Did Russian Prime Minister Medvedev Drop a Grim Hint About Putin’s Latest Power Grab?
Reading from Chekhov’s “A Night in the Cemetery” on national television Tuesday, Dmitry Medvedev foreshadowed the upheaval to come with his government's resignation on Wednesday.
At a celebration of the Russian Orthodox New Year on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev chose a grim message, the sarcasm of which left his audience on edge. But, then, Medvedev probably knew what Wednesday would bring—the resignation of his entire government—and the audience did not.
On national television, the prime minister read at length from Anton Chekhov’s story "A Night in the Cemetery," which suggests with ironic wit that celebrating the coming of the New Year is a foolish pursuit, unworthy of a properly functioning mind, since “every coming year is as bad as the previous one,” and the newest year is bound to be even worse. Instead of celebrating the New Year, Chekhov wrote—and Medvedev read—one should suffer, cry and attempt suicide. Every new year brings you closer to death, makes you poorer, your bald spots larger and your wife older, he said.
Medvedev’s sour greetings brought on some awkward laughs and sparse applause from confused Russian bureaucrats in the studio audience, most of whom remained stone-faced. The prime minister seemed nervous and almost dropped his papers at the end of the speech.
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WNU Editor: I am speculating now, but I think it was only the day before he was fired that Russian Prime Minister Medvedev and his cabinet learned that they were going to be gone the next day. As to when did Putin make the decision to fire his Prime Minister and the cabinet .... it had to be between Russian Christmas and Russian Orthodox New Year (January 7 - 14). Everyone was distracted with enjoying the holidays, a perfect time for Putin to plot and implement his agenda without anyone noticing and/or leaking it.
