"Novaya Gazeta": "Prime Minister glazed in chocolate"
The Lipetsk ice cream factory gives United Russia a scare.
A new product that hit the Russian market has caused serious concern of United Russia party's local branch.
Lipetsk Ice Cream Factory supplies its products to 32 Russian regions, including Moscow and even abroad. However, former ice cream brands did not require political tasting. Chocolate-glazed ice cream called Putina is already well known in the capital and even the Russian flag on its wrapping has met with no political protests. However, the new caramel cream triggered a discussion because many think the use of the name so dear to United Russia on an ice cream is improper. And so was the national flag on its wrapping.
The factory, however, denies any political connotations and claims that to a Russian speaker the name Putina carries associations with fishing rather than with the Kremlin (dictionaries define putina as "the period of intensive fishing"). There is no allusion to the Prime Minister while the flag is simply the symbol of a domestic producer whom the United Russia party and Government have been promising to bail out for many years. To this the party members reasonably point out that the label shows no water and no fish. Instead it shows the Russian flag. And who embodies the State in Russia?
It should be noted that the managers of Lipetsk Ice Cream Factory are dedicated members of the United Russia who are politically aware decent people, but the local party cell still said it would have to talk with them and explain their mistake lest an attempt to promote an ice cream brand end up discrediting the national leader who, the chances are, has never tasted this brand of ice cream. The producers insist on their interpretation of the name and say they will ship at least 60 tonnes of Putina to Moscow alone this year, not to mention other Russian regions.
Alexander Yagodkin
