Putin To Zelensky: Like It Or Not, You’re About to Be F*cked

Dear Readers:

I saw this piece today, the reporter is Anton Nikitin. The genre, loosely, is “Putin being Putin”. For many years now, Putin-watchers have noted the Russian President’s subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) dark (and sometimes cruel) sense of humor. Putin has authored many quips and sayings, what Russians called “winged expressions”, that will live on in infamy. Usually, however, Putin usually does not make up expressions of whole cloth, he mostly utilizes existing ones, like Russian proverbs, quotes from poems, etc. As is the case in today’s example.

The context is this: Putin, at his post-Macron press conference, trolling Ukrainian President Zelensky over the Minsk Accords, which maintain the ceasefire on the Donbass front. Zelensky has a schizophrenic attitude towards the Accords, sometimes saying that he will follow them; other times saying he cannot follow them because they tie Ukraine’s hands too much. On this occasion Zelensky apparently stated that one of the bullet points was impossible to comply with. Putin retorted wittily with the following utterance, which is not only highly insulting to Zelensky, and completely un-diplomatic in tone, but also laugh-aloud funny:

«Президент [Украины] действующий (Владимир Зеленский) недавно заявил, что ему ни один пункт не нравится из этих Минских соглашений. «Нравится, не нравится, терпи, моя красавица», – процитировал глава российского государства. – Надо исполнять, по-другому не получится».

TRANSLATION:

“The acting President [of the Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky] recently declared that he was displeased by one of the points of the Minsk Accords. Like it or don’t like it, but you must endure it, my beauty. You must abide [by the Accords], there is no other way.”

Okay, the really funny part of this does not come through in the translation. It’s the Russian phrase «Нравится, не нравится, терпи, моя красавица». This winged phrase comes from a traditional Russian peasant chastushka, a short song or poem in doggerel rhyme. Chastushki are almost always obscene and vulgar, but can also be very funny and clever.

Many scholars believe that chastushki arose in the Middle Ages and were popularized by skomorokhi, or travelling minstrels who were also clowns, not unlike the Italian commedia dell’arte troups of the same era. In fact, the very word skomorokh likely comes from the Italian Scaramouche.

Like it or not, bubula…

Anyhow, this particular chastushka, the one containing the phrase employed by President Putin, has several versions, but the most common version goes something like this, with the last 2 phrases the ones quoted by Putin:

Лежит милая в гробу, —
Я пристроился, ебу!
Нравится, не нравится, —
Терпи, моя красавица!

I am going to translate this chastushka, warning that it will not sound funny in English, just obscene. It sounds funnier in Russian, though, and also rhymes, with the final couplet rhyme being /nravitsa/ (“like it”) and /krasavitsa/ (“beauty”).

My darling is lying in her coffin, —
I get on top of her, I start to f*ck her!
Like it, don’t like it, —
Either way, just endure it, my beauty!

With Zelensky playing the role of the Corpse-Bride, any further commentary or explication is superfluous.