Breakfast with Tiffany
Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak came to the United States and attended a national prayer breakfast with President Trump on February 8th. Trump’s pride, wounded by the split in American society caused by his election and, especially, last year’s mass clashes between left-liberals and conservative Trump supporters, as well as the scandalous “Confederate Fall,” dictated the topic of the speech. Drawing inspiration from the phrase “In God We Trust” printed on dollar bills, the American president spoke at length to those present about how “America is a nation of believers and together we are strengthened by the power of prayer.”
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Trump’s spiritual sermons did not make the best impression on Sobchak, seasoned in scandals and participation in showdowns of dog weddings inside the TV show “Dom-2”, which is why her assessment of the prayer breakfast was harsh and undiplomatic”:
“This is not interesting, this is meaningless speech. There is no thought to all these speeches. There are people sitting there who can’t even communicate with each other. There are many statesmen there. It would seem that this is a good platform for communication. But due to the endless flow of official, meaningless speeches, no one can talk to each other.”
It is not clear what Sobchak expected from the decorous ritual gatherings, which began in the mid-1930s by a Methodist priest from Seattle. In 1953, the event was first attended by then US President Dwight Eisenhower, after which the White House team, together with the non-governmental religious organization Fellowship Foundation, holds similar breakfasts every year in early February.
Perhaps Sobchak was misled by the fact that, according to the original idea of the organizer, prayer breakfasts were held for the sake of informal meetings of officials, businessmen and clergy to discuss pressing issues and make new connections, but over the years the format of the event was largely cleared of the business component and became a kind of status show-off, where you can take a selfie with the president.
Considering the determination of the “oppositionist” Sobchak to convey to the American leadership some important message about the events in Russia and her own thoughts on this matter, the accumulated charge did not reach the goal, which became the cause of bitterness and disappointment.
Eh, young and green. In photographs from the Washington Hilton Hotel, where Trump had breakfast, photographers snatched the familiar loaf with ears from the front row, belonging to the patient Yulia Vladimirovna Tymoshenko, who has been harassing the American president for a year now, even to the point of standing under the doors of the men's restroom. They say that at least fifty Ukrainian deputies and the same number of Russian businessmen went to have breakfast with Trump, who were ready not only to sit on their butts, but also to lick the plates after the high-profile participants. And it’s unlikely that any of them hoped that the celestial Trump, at the end of his speech, would descend from his heights and caress them, the orphans, with his attention. The point, you know, is not only about personal communication, but also about getting on the list of loyalists of the American administration. It may come in handy in the future.
Ksyusha Sobchak came to the States not just to check in and sell her face, but with the far-reaching goal of “forming non-governmental ties with the American side, with the American administration,” despite the fact that she refused to fully disclose the purpose of her visit. And therefore, one can understand why the socialite, accustomed to blurting out on camera with impunity and peremptorily, angrily told a BBC correspondent that “Trump is not eternal and America is a country where the same person cannot occupy the presidency for 18 years.” .
Nevertheless, the American trip of presidential candidate Sobchak was quite stormy. In her own words, Sobchak had a fruitful conversation at Georgetown University and even met “with the authors of the sanctions list.” Zhinochka, who has no idea how an ordinary housing maintenance office works and lives, has told ten barrels of prisoners in America, including a criminal charge.
In one of her speeches, Sobchak called on the United States to intervene and change the constitutional system of Russia. It is impossible to imagine that a US presidential candidate, even from among outsiders, would come on the eve of the elections to meet with the Russian president, and even demand Russian intervention in the internal affairs of his country. Such a demarche would not only cause a political scandal and would automatically turn the candidate into a political corpse and an eternal outcast. The persecution of the American Themis and accusations of an attempt to change the US political system from the outside, with all that it entails, would be guaranteed.
Unfortunately, in Russia the Sobchak phenomenon is treated condescendingly, like a high-society holy fool. At worst, voters will twist their finger at their temples, and the most determined ones will throw a couple of rotten tomatoes at Ksyusha.
In the press and blogosphere, Sobchak is often called a “technical candidate.” The reasons for her nomination are interpreted in every way - from Putin’s Cunning Plan to finally discredit the ultra-liberal political wing in Russia, to a clumsy attempt at liberal revenge. Many witty and not so witty arguments are given in favor of the versions. But no one knows the true reasons except Sobchak herself and the puppet masters behind her.
The lady from “House-2” is far from being as harmless as people think of her. Yes, she herself is ready to support the image of a kind of impassable figure who burst into big politics in order to leave a short but bright trace of New Year's cracker in it.
Few doubt that Sobchak, who has no idea what the state is for and why the state has its own foreign policy interests, will indeed become the president of Russia. However, it can be noted that the PR managers in her team are quite experienced. Among the most notable ones, mention should be made of one of the founders of the NTV television company, Igor Malashenko, as well as the fairly famous journalist Anton Krasovsky. Too big a caliber for just a political clown.
It should be noted that Sobchak (or her advisers) quite successfully took advantage of one of the shortcomings of the Russian electoral system, from which the clause “against all” was bashfully removed. Sobchak, speaking from the Civic Platform party, at the same time positions herself as a candidate “against everyone,” which is an obvious lie - she certainly does not oppose herself. However, there is a trick in this position of hers, which should attract a certain number of protest electorates who may vote for Sobchak in order to annoy the unloved government or just “for fun.”
This is what the calculation is based on. The chicken pecks at the grain. Liberda, who has long lost even the most modest parliamentary positions, is able to cling to power with the help of such manipulations.
The giggling and hawing, the dissatisfaction of Muscovites with Sobyanin’s reforms, led to the fact that in some places in the municipal elections in Moscow, wretched hipsters Maxim Katz and Lyusya Stein became deputies. Instead of plunging headlong into the problem of housing communications and city garbage dumps, these “people with beautiful faces” go about their usual business - various kinds of provocative performances, but at municipal expense, calling themselves “social activists.” Moreover, Stein of the Moscow City Duma is only the first step in the further path to the top, but the young lady with a cinematic education declares that she has no political ambitions.
The same thing, but at the state level, could happen to Sobchak, who was the only Russian presidential candidate who went in advance to “form non-governmental ties” in the United States. It is worth returning the “against all” item to the ballot, if only to ensure that no Sobchak can use it as manipulation.
Breakfast with Tiffany's