Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and then Russian President Vladimir Putin
Photo by: Xinhua
In a sign that people are getting used to the perennial haggling between Russia and Ukraine over the price of natural gas, the AFP is reporting some of the jokes (anekdoty) making their rounds among the Russian and Ukrainian publics. Interestingly, while many of them mock the Kremlin for taking a tough line on gas prices with Ukraine, many more make fun of the Ukrainian leadership for its constant infighting and inability to keep the gas flowing.
Click on the extended post to read excerpts from the AFP story.
MOSCOW (AFP) -- As the prolonged energy crisis between Moscow and Kiev shows no signs of easing, jokes about a dispute that has left Europe freezing have begun making the rounds in both Russia and Ukraine.
Telling jokes about major issues of the day is a time-honoured tradition in the region, where people relied on their "anekdoty" for good cheer in Soviet times and the humour can provide a helpful insight into popular thinking.
Here are some jokes making the rounds on Russian and Ukrainian websites:
-- News from March 6, 2009: Gazprom has offered to sell Ukraine gas for 3,500 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres. The management of Ukraine's Naftogaz says the optimal price is 50 dollars. The talks are continuing.
-- They say Naftogaz will lodge a complaint against Russia with the Stockholm Tribunal.
- So will Russia be put against the wall?
- Unlikely. Ukraine, as always, will refuse to pay for the bullet.
-- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko are roasting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on a skewer.
Lukashenko asks: "Vladimir Vladimirovich, why are you turning the skewer so quickly? He won't be cooked well enough."
Putin: "Hmmm. When I rotate it slowly, he steals the coal."
-- It's New Year's Eve -- the day before the expected cutoff of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine after talks between Moscow and Kiev collapse. A Ukrainian anchorman announces:
Dear television viewers and radio listeners! We kindly ask you to put away any heavy and cutting objects which can harm your television and radio sets: we are beginning the broadcast of the President's New Year's address to the nation.
-- A plane carrying Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and pro-Russian opposition politician Viktor Yanukovych is flying over Ukrainian territory.
Yushchenko: I will now drop hope for the future on all Ukrainians and will become the most respected man in the country.
Tymoshenko: And I will drop a promise to pay each client of the savings bank an additional thousand hryvnias and will earn even more respect.
Yanukovych: And I will throw the two of you overboard and a monument to me will be erected in my lifetime.
Go to the AFP website to read the rest of the article.
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