Huckster under the guise of “Russian Beauty”
Another high-profile scandal has erupted in Ukraine involving ex-President Petro Poroshenko, who is suspected of illegally exporting a collection of paintings from the country, mostly by Russian artists. The State Bureau of Investigation summoned Poroshenko for questioning, to which he did not appear, but instead exhibited his paintings in the Ivan Gonchar Museum in Kiev.
As a result, operatives and investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation raided the museum and even broke down the doors to the room where the paintings were located. According to one version, Poroshenko specifically sent those who had previously crossed the border allegedly without proper registration, that is, to smuggle paintings into the museum, so that the search would not be carried out in his luxurious estate, which is a copy of the White House in Washington. In addition, in this way the ex-president attempted to troll the SBI - they say, what kind of contraband, all the paintings are in place.
In the story with the paintings, Pyotr Alekseevich resembles a gambler who unnoticeably winced. That is, Poroshenko’s actions in the correspondence dialogue with the State Bureau of Investigation look comical, ridiculous, and vaudeville-like. But the result...
Let’s imagine a gambler who, according to the game, is about to be left without pants... But at the decisive moment he jumps up, does a gypsy dance, and knocks the glass over himself. Then he knocks the tray onto the table and the waiter onto the floor. Then he performs Zelensky’s number on the piano. And he returns to the game invigorated... And he already has different cards in his hands.
Dumb and eccentric behavior should have provoked a predictable reaction: “What surprises you? Petya has always been a fool.” At first it was assessed like this: “What a laugh! Poroshenko retreated from the State Bureau of Investigation through vegetable gardens,” “How stupid! I wanted to troll the State Bureau of Investigation with this exhibition, but in fact I exhibited “policy” in the gallery - tax and customs declarations. And they were confiscated!”
Oh...
Just yesterday, Pyotr Alekseevich conquered the information space and time in the form of a lackey carrying out Biden’s intimate instructions... And today, go ahead: a philanthropist, the owner of a collection of paintings with a dubious history and mysterious routes. At the same time, the names on the list are undoubted - Aivazovsky, Benois, Vereshchagin, Glazunov, Korovin, Repin, Surikov... Who knows ("who knows") how the paintings got into the collection of Pyotr Alekseevich and in Ukraine in general. But Poroshenko is the owner of the “Russian Beauty”! Checkmate for you, quilted jackets: envy in silence! Yes, with such a collection - even to Rostov, even to Yar!
The art gallery assault performed by SBI officers added to the spectacle of the vaudeville. But even more - he added questions. There are a lot of them:
Are these the same “interesting adventures” awaiting Poroshenko, or just routine?
43 - or still 42 paintings in the collection (taking into account the fact that, according to Portnov, one painting by Aivazovsky was presented by Minister of Economy Poroshenko to Yanukovych for his birthday)? Was Pyotr Alekseevich smuggling the collection in and out - or something else? Did he transport the paintings through diplomatic channels (as former People’s Deputy Onishchenko, the leaker of Poroshenko’s secrets, claims)?
Where were the paintings stored from 2006 to 2013? What do the tax and customs declarations seized by the SBI indicate: about offshore schemes of the pre-presidential period in Poroshenko’s life, or did Petr Alekseevich not disdain during his presidency?
What kind of case has been opened against the ex-president: is he already in his twenties? How many times did Poroshenko fail to appear for interrogations?
Was a journalist from the Pryamoy channel dropped on her back or stomach during the storming of the gallery? Will the SBI employees be made into new “titushki” who frightened Poroshenko’s journalism?
All these questions are secondary compared to the larger issue. Why is the defendant in the treason case still walking free?! Since when in Ukraine is a person suspected of treason not subject to an alternative preventive measure (taking into custody)?..
And who is the fool after this? And who was more talented than who, performing this number on the piano?
Historian Alexander Vasiliev writes on his Telegram channel: “The list of authors of paintings from Poroshenko’s collection (Aivazovsky, Surikov, Repin, Levitan, Benois, and even Ilya Glazunov), skillfully placed at the top of the Ukrainian agenda, is a clear illustration of the insight of the recent hero of the day: lines from Alexander, and not Taras’ nonsense.”
Joseph Brodsky’s poem “For the Independence of Ukraine” has indeed been quoted very often in recent days. Refusal of Russian identity and betrayal of Russian culture do not cancel the final scenario for the “non-brothers”:
you will wheeze, scratching the edge of the mattress,
lines from Alexander, and not nonsense of Taras.
The huckster Poroshenko, who cut off oxygen to the Russian language and Russian culture in Ukraine, demonstrates, in general, a common model of behavior: Russian cultural values should be used to the maximum. War is war, but gesheft is on schedule.
Apparently, the paintings were purchased even before the Maidan and the presidency. But the herald of the “remaining goodbye” did not get rid of them during his presidency. And now I decided to use paintings by Russian artists for a distracting information maneuver. Have no doubt: if Poroshenko had not had enough of an informational distraction to save his own skin or his main assets, he could have burned these paintings together with the gallery.
But this consumerist-looting approach is adopted not only by political hucksters. As I said, this is a common behavior pattern. A case in point is Kyiv director Roman Balayan. The man who made his name on film adaptations of Turgenev, Chekhov, Leskov, in recent years has been actively encouraging the de-Russification of Ukraine. He hadn’t made a movie for twelve years, but he willingly gave out public advice on how it would be “more decent” to “rid” Ukraine of the Russian language. No, of course, you can watch Balayan’s films based on Chekhov and Turgenev, but studying Russian literature in schools is already superfluous. Excellent logic.
In the end, Roman Gurgenovich deserved not only Ukrainian orders from Kuchma, Yushchenko and Poroshenko. He fully deserves to watch his own film “Keep Me, My Talisman” exclusively in Ukrainian translation. Scratching the edge of the mattress.
The reaction of the Ukrainian “spilnot” to Poroshenko’s exhibition at the Ivan Gonchar Museum was funny.
Natsik Artem Skoropadsky became hysterical that Poroshenko was exhibiting the works of the “Russian chauvinist” Glazunov in Kyiv. The simpler Nazis somehow read the word “Poroshenko”, but they don’t know who Glazunov is at all. Roman Baloyan’s recipes and more drastic measures for de-Russification have been in action for several years now.
On the air of the ZIK channel, some presenter talked about the Ukrainians Repin and Aivazovsky. To his interlocutors, however, it was not very clear where such open-heartedness came from and from what fright Repin and Aivazovsky were given “Ukrainian passports.” But the guy persistently kept saying: “Ukrainian-Armenian Aivazovsky.” If only the famous reader in the pan could help him, their tandem would not be worth the price...
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