September 20, 2016

"Putin ally celebrates winning 98 percent of vote in a full suit of medieval armor."



ADDED: This post is over-puzzling. Does Althouse follow Morgan Fairchild on Twitter? No. Jake Tapper retweeted it. I follow Jake Tapper.

20 comments:

Curious George said...

Morgan Fairchild. Jake Tapper. About the same credibility.

Hagar said...

That looks more like a Viking get-up. The Moscow Principate was started by a bunch of "Rus" from Kiev, or thereabouts.

traditionalguy said...

Go figure. TheRussian Orthodox leaders fight for Russia against Islamic domination while Chicago Marxists fight against America for Islam Domination.

Danno said...

I forgot where I should know Morgan Fairchild from, and please don't remind me. Her twitter pic shows her with way too much eye makeup and she has raccoon eyes. That's my two cents worth.

Big Mike said...

He's dressed as a 14th century boyar, complete to scraggly beard. You're sort of right, Hagar. The Rus were Vikings who came -- some think from Sweden -- and conquered present day Russia from the Baltic all the way down to Kiev. "Belarus" (white Rus) is also named after them.

buwaya said...

It looks like a quite accurate costume for the period intended. The old Russians had their own military style.
There is quite a lot of historical re-enactment going on in Russia these days, and much interest in HEMA - historical european martial arts. My boy is into it, dueling with broadswords and such.

Chuck said...

They laugh, about a Russian autocrat or a Cuban dictator or an Iranian mullah getting 98 percent of the vote.

But 98 percent of the vote is what Democrat presidential candidates get, in the city of Detroit.

Big Mike said...

@buwaya puti, does your boy do Society for Creative Anachronism? It's said to be a lot of fun. My old sensei used to enjoy going to Renaissance fairs with his quarterstaff (bo).

Here in Virginia young men are more likely to do Civil War reenactments, Revolutionary War reenactments, and Old West (Single Action Shooting Society) than SCA. I put it down to a desire to return to a time when manliness was something appreciated by both men and women, and when "honor" was not just another obsolete word in the dictionary.

Quaestor said...

The guy in the armor is Ramzan Kadyrov. He's a Muslim. He's the head dude in the Chechen Republic. He's a member of the United Russia party, which makes him Putin's ally. But here's the kicker — Kadyrov started his political career as a jihadist pledged to holy war against Russia. He's been totally co-opted by Putin. By trading a little token power for total loyalty to Russia Vladimir Putin has secured Russia's southern border against the worst of Islam. They don't take in refugees. They don't accept migrants. Russia had its own 9-11 in 2006 — the public school in Beslan, remember that one? 300 people killed, over half were children. We haven't heard of anything like that outrage since. Why? The jihadis kill the unarmed, the prepared, the unprotected. There are still Chechen terrorists, but they've migrated elsewhere and kill their hosts. They've given up on killing Russians. Why is that?

YoungHegelian said...

I think Kadyrov was, for whatever reason, channeling the spirit (or perhaps "aping" is a better term) of St. Alexander Nevsky, whose feast had passed a little before. Nevsky is also the patron saint of soldiers & those who guard "de borders of Holy Mother Russia", so it would be considered appropriate in this time when the Russians consider themselves to be at war with the West.

Kinda weird for a Muslim, though.

Anonymous said...

I have an interesting anecdote that was passed along through in-laws.
It involves Kadyrov, one of his wives, another man, love, brokered meetings and nearly death.

That's probably all I should say here.

Howard said...

Tony Soprano undercover.

Geoff Matthews said...

Sounds like something that Chechen guy would do.

>Checks article<

Yep, it was the most Chechen thing a Chechen has done sense the Boston Marathon bombing.

Clyde said...

Chainmail? What an amateur! To be really cool, the armor needs to be made of dragonscale or dragonbone. He obviously needs better DLC.

mockturtle said...

A Kevlar vest would probably be more comfortable.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Mockturtle, Kevlar is less effective against edged weapons. Quite vulnerable to stabbing.

mockturtle said...

Yes. I was just contrasting medieval with modern 'body armor'.

J. Farmer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
J. Farmer said...

So what? The recently deceased president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov had been in office since Uzbekistan's first election in 1991, and Uzbekistan was a strategic ally to the US. This is what big powers do.

Putin could be a fantastic ally to the US. It's mostly dumb Russophobia and Cold War anachronisms that keep the US and Russia at such odds.

mockturtle said...

I agree, J. Farmer. I'd rather have Russian as an ally than Saudi Arabia.