Izvestia: “Medvedev and Putin: Catchphrases of the Year”
The two leaders' linguistic achievements of the year.
The personal vocabularies of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have changed over the past year. The key change is that the two leaders tend to "put out verbal feelers," said Professor Mikhail Gorbanevsky, the linguist invited by Izvestia to analyse Medvedev's and Putin's statements.
Verbatim
Dmitry Medvedev:
"We have no electronic government; it's a chimera." (On the development of an information society in Russia)
"The courts have become overburdened with intermediaries, the ‘shot-callers' who deserve to be imprisoned." (On corruption in the courts when problems are resolved with money paid through intermediaries)
"I don't want to see the day when all of us will be viewed as the octogenarian Politburo leaders of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, looking so alike in their coats and fur hats on Lenin's Mausoleum that it's impossible to tell who's who." (On differences between himself and Putin)
"Collars will not solve the problem, but we must certainly collar the culprits." (On the fight against corruption)
"What you say can be called remarks, but everything I say is cast in marble." (On the attempt by Sergei Chemezov, head of the state corporation Russian Technologies, to offer an explanation)
Vladimir Putin:
"Tanya, like the Khottabych genie, I will give a computer to each student in your school - no problem." (In response to a nine-grader's appeal)
"The problems were created when the integrated system was split, with some picking all the raisins from the bun." (On the problems of the Pikalyovo, a small town in the Leningrad Region that became a symbol of the economic crisis last year)
"And if someone, who was a participant in this process, aims to find some raisins for himself in this old, mouldy bun, nothing good will come of this." (On attempts to review WWII results)
"It's true that they are clutching something in their sweating hand, like Pinocchio and his five gold pieces, and they don't want to share with us any more." (On Turkmenistan's refusal to supply more Caucasian leopards in order to restore their population)
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Commentary by Alexander Beluz:
The feelers are put out in the form of impersonal or very short discussions, with one of the two leaders airing an idea and the other later taking it up and developing it. A good example is the "collar," a professional slang term used for arrests.
"Why haven't there been any collars?" Vladimir Putin asked at a government meeting in June. In November, Dmitry Medvedev said in his State of the Nation Address that "collars" were necessary but not the only way to solve problems.
Medvedev often uses words that are reminiscent of Ancient Greece, as is often the case with people who have a fundamental education and a legal background. Take the word "chimeras," which only intellectuals use.
"Medvedev's speeches remind me of an enlightened oracle in Ancient Greece fighting for the truth, such as Laocoon," Professor Mikhail Gorbanevsky said. "Interestingly, the word ‘chimera' in modern Russian means an impossible or strange dream, an illusion. I don't think Medvedev chose the wrong word; I think he wanted to express his pain at the situation."
Over the past year, Medvedev's style has changed and now resembles that of experienced leaders. A point at issue is the use of euphemisms.
"Using softer words where a stronger one could do is a new feature for Medvedev. It has appeared recently and he can do nothing about it," the professor said. "A doctor will never say ‘death,' he will say ‘passing.' As for heads of state, they have many more taboo words. For example, the words ‘crisis elements' and ‘turbulence' sound much more acceptable than ‘falling production'."
At the same time, the president has started using Newspeak. He said that the elections in Derbent were "not quite sterile."
"He could have found some other word to describe the situation in Derbent, where the election authorities cited an absurd figure, 104%," Gorbanevsky said. "But this newly-coined expression may become popular on a par with ‘administrative resources.' Highly indicative in this sense is Medvedev's hope that the people will not see him and Putin as ‘the octogenarian Politburo leaders'."
"It was actually the first time that Medvedev hinted at the possibility of a return to the lifestyle of Brezhnev's stagnation period and also at his feeling about that possibility and his desire to get rid of it as Laocoon tried to get rid of the snakes," the professor said.
One more trend is the use of harsh but relatively passable words such as "bastards" and "hoodlums." Medvedev has been lately using them more often, but they sound in place when he says them. He even invented a word that is new to the Russian language, "shot-callers."
According to Gorbanevsky, the verb, "to call the shots" meaning to have the authority to solve problems, is widely used in the criminal argot, but Medvedev was the first to use it as a noun.
Meanwhile, Putin now sounds more aphoristic, like Viktor Chernomyrdin once was. Relevant examples are "the buns and raisins" and his reference to Mikhalkov "harrying" him.
As to such phrases as, "If we imprison everyone, then who will work?" and "Ambitions die when money ends," if properly promoted, they would go down in linguistic history.
Gorbanevsky said that the prime minister has been trying to appear closer to the people, hence his allusions and references to fairytales, which Putin has used several times this year, such as "You and I are of the same blood" (Mowgli from the Jungle Book), Pinocchio's five gold pieces, and the Khottabych genie.
He used a phrase from childhood to describe a meeting between Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili: "Men recalled the past days and the battles they lost," which is a reference to Alexander Pushkin's Lay of the Wise Oleg, in which "men recalled the past days and the battles they waged."
"Could it be a prepared impromptu?" Gorbanevsky wonders. "No, I think Putin's aphoristic language has a different origin. He is genetically closer to the common people, and [by using such language] he recalls his simple and possibly slightly malicious childhood more often than Medvedev."
By the end of the year, Medvedev produced an aphorism of his own, when he told Chemezov, head of Russian Technologies: "Everything I say is cast in marble." He spoke rather carelessly, as you can only cast something in metal, but it is the meaning that is important.
Putin once said pointing to his eyes: "You must look here, and listen to what I tell you."
