“The Washington Regional Committee” or Mr. Brooke’s Historical Journey to Odessa

At 8 p.m. on Friday, the head of the Moscow bureau of “Voice of America,” James Brooke, an expert on Russia and the USSR, “decided to close the Moscow office and fly to Odessa for the weekend.”

I want to stress that I am quoting from his blog on the official site of this radio station. The truth is, at first Brooke wrote he was going to visit Central Asia, but because Moscow was expecting freezing temperatures at -30 degrees Celsius, he decided it would be better to fly to the Black Sea coast.

“I did not have an airline ticket, but I knew the schedule. Three hours later, at 11 p.m., I was buckled into a window seat in a nice, new Boeing 737, and rolling down the runway at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport.”

As we see, Brooke is an inquisitive person, easily versed in airline schedules and his texts are not without some poetry. But these are only the seeds, the berries will come.

To start, we note that Aeroexpress overwhelmed Brooke outright upon his arrival at Vnukovo. It turns out he took a red and white express train that was not affected by traffic jams since it travels exclusively on rails.

“The definition of express” — explains the stunned traveler, “means that they leave on time, make no stops, and cut through Moscow’s notorious and unpredictable traffic jams. Clean and quiet, the train was a rolling reading room, allowing me to catch up on back newspapers and check email on my mobile phone.”

Can you imagine! This means earlier Russians could only read Brooke’s articles with a torch, but in the new Russia, this remarkable train has appeared! A ticket on this wonderful train, Brooke purchased it as if it was something out of science fiction: “Tap, tap, tap on a touch screen. The round trip ticket was in my hand, and the change in my pocket.”

Fantastic! Modern electronics instead of auntie with a roll of tickets on a string.

In general, Brooke never ceased to be amazed during his entire historic trip from Moscow to Odessa. He was shocked at such miracles as metal detectors and escalators, offered to Brooke in “the new steel and glass terminal.” But here is another striking fact — he purchased the ticket to Odessa on his Visa card and was “at the same time, juggling a telephone call from my oldest son James, calling from Ohio.…”! There are no words!

By the way, Brooke nostalgically recalls he once had the opportunity to visit the restroom on an Aeroflot flight in 1991 and it did not bring him much pleasure, but now it has been delivered. Thanks to the Party for this.

Believe me, I would not waste your time on this nonsense, but such a pitiful level is unacceptable for a journalist of such a position, even with cutting a break for a foreign language. But the fact is Brooke not only paints a vivid picture of the wonders of modern Russia, he also makes historical conclusions. The journey on the train and the comparative analysis of the state of the restrooms so influenced the visiting head of a foreign organization that he, quote, “insight into a central problem facing Prime Minister Putin as he tries to hold on to middle class support this political year — in the March 4 elections and beyond.” In my opinion (that is, the opinion of comrade Brooke), Putin became the victim of his own success. “The 20 and 30 somethings who chant “Russia Without Putin” have no real memory of the chaotic 1990s, much less the gray, repressive communist years before that. Putin’s promise of “stability” may be music to the ears of the older generation. But, to Russia’s younger generation, it sounds like stagnation..” End quote.

So, in the gray pre-Putin years we got to Vnukov on a troika with sleigh bells, which hauled us directly to the wooden platform for the steam-powered corn cob. And instead of a modern airport, which so struck the impressionable resident of Ohio, the people waited for their flights in a hut on chicken legs entertaining themselves with a brew of moonshine and a balalaika.

I am afraid to upset the author, but for me, for people of this generation, for people even older than he is — the sound of Putin’s promises is not music, but empty electoral chatter. Not to mention that before the era of stability it was possible to ride on the railroad or take an escalator. I don’t know about Ohio, but in Moscow this was possible.

Of course, any citizen is free to have his views. But if the author, with wretched photos taken under the signature “James Brooke,” describes personal feelings on an official website of the radio station, listeners might think it is the official position of the State Department and furthermore that the “Washington Regional Committee” votes for Putin. What say you, Brooke?

However, I understand that no one at the Russian Bureau of “Voice” is particularly interested in us — so today it is along the lines of an exile. But, it is a pity for the government, the birthplace of Pushkin and all that, they should be able to find someone with some talent. And as it is in the anecdote, we sent the clever and intelligent, and to us – a full Aeroexpress.