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A place where I can lament the changing times; for eccentric comments on current affairs and for unfashionable views, expressed I hope, in cogent style; also occasional cris de coeur largely concerned, I regret to say, with myself.



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Saturday, 6 December 2008

Russian Family Matters














Two Georgian mothers and a coincidence.

At the top is Vera Putina, who claims to be the mother of Russian Emperor Vladimir Putin.  She lives in Gori.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Putin's spokesman denies that she is his mother, stating that both his parents are dead. Meanwhile, Mme Putina says "I used to be proud of having a son who became President of Russia. Since the war I am ashamed."

On the left [picture source Life] is Mme Ketavan Jughashvili mother of notorious Soviet Russian Dictator, Josef Stalin.  It is a strange coincidence that both her terrible son and Vladimir Putin were apparently born at Gori.

There is possibly a second coincidence, this time concerning Russia's relationship with Georgia. The latest events in Georgia are probably too familiar to be reported here, but bear them in mind when thinking about the brutal absorbtion of Georgia into the Soviet Union: the so-called Georgia Affair.  Curious is it not that at the times of this and also the recent war, that arguably the second-in-command in Moscow was a Georgian (I suppose I should add in one case allegedly).

When Stalin was in control, a detachment of his special (presumably NKVD) troops was sent to guard his mother's house.  According to "A.I. Romanov" who was in reality B.I. Baklanov, a NKVD defector, there was a joke circulating in Russia at this time: it was said that the troops had not been sent to guard Mme Jughashvili, but in fact to prevent her from producing another Stalin.

I have not yet seen any reports of a guard at Mme Putina's house; perhaps Putin's spokesman is telling the truth!

Until the next time

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