Yesterday, in the best tradition of Soviet undiplomatic behavior, Russian diplomats walked out of the UN General Assembly when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke, a Moscow action that immediately sparked ridicule from Russian as well as Ukrainian bloggers.
Apostrophe.com.ua’s Andrii Pyndyk has assembled some of the these, and a selection is provided below as an example of the way social media permit people to speak truth to power when officials are clearly unwilling to.
- One Russian blogger said that the performance of the Russian delegation showed that “the president of Ukraine is a good exorcist!”
- A Ukrainian blogger and journalist said that “it would have been better if these idiots had left Crimea and the Donbas.”
- A Russian blogger said that the Russians wanted Poroshenko to speak about climate change during “a time of war.”
- A Ukrainian blogger said “it would have been better if [the Russian diplomats] as a protest would have stopped military aggression against Ukraine.”
- A Ukrainian blogger said that as a mark of protest, Russians throughout the world should have gone to Siberia and conquered it for Russia.
- Another blogger suggested that when Vladimir Putin speaks, the best response at the United Nations would be to turn out the lights.
- Still another said that the only reason Russian diplomats had come to the UN in the first place is so that they could walk out when Poroshenko spoke.
- A Ukrainian blogger pointed out that not all the Russian diplomats left. One remained to listen, although it is not clear why that was necessary.
- A Ukrainian blogger suggested that after the Russians walked out, US President Barack Obama should refuse to meet with Putin.
- A Russian blogger said that “Russian pensions had deserted pensioners as a sign of support for the annexation of Crimea.”
- Another blogger said that the Russian delegation decided to make a real protest by having all their children study in American universities.
- A Ukrainian blogger said that the Russian diplomats’ action was very much in “the Russian style: leave the ice during the playing of Canada’s national anthem and leave the UN during Poroshenko’s speech. Brave. Tough. Patriotic.”
- A Ukrainian blogger explained the departure of the Russians this way. He said that before Poroshenko’s speech, someone had sprinkled holy water on the Russians and they had simply vanished.
- And several bloggers, Russian and Ukrainian alike, suggested that the Russian diplomats had left the hall in order to get their fill of foods from the buffet that have been banned by Moscow.
