Putin gives eight gold rings to presidents of CIS countries, keeps ninth | Hacker News Reader

Putin gives eight gold rings to presidents of CIS countries, keeps ninth

theins.ru

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>~~Nine~~Eigth for Mortal Men doomed to die,

>One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

>In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

>One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

>One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

>In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Hypernormalisation for the win.

This just digs Russia deeper into Lord of the Rings meme territory, particularly considering that their troops are already popularly referred to as 'orcs', and Russia itself as 'Mordor'.

So now we have nine rings of power, and one ring to rule them all...

Calling Russians orcs makes me uncomfortable. That echos a world view that should be avoided to the greatest extend possible.

I don't see the problem. They really are acting like orcs, maybe worse even.

Please try to figure out on your own why it is a dangerous idea. If I would try to argue my point, you would just argue me back.

All I will tell you is that there were 4 upvotes for my comment so you can be confident that the idea is not entirely unreasonable.

I see a bunch of evil people murdering, raping, and pillaging (all extremely well-documented). And you're defending them, complaining about other people comparing them with fictional villains. I don't see how calling war criminals names is somehow dangerous. Maybe they should try not raping and murdering civilians and invading a sovereign country.

I am not defending them. I also don't mind calling them names in general. You don't have to figure it out right now.

If you dehumanize an enemy, you can do anything to them without any moral consequences. Even genocide may be permissible if the enemy isn't human. It could even be virtuous.

"When the concept of 'otherness' takes root, the unimaginable becomes possible."

Slavenka Drakulić wrote that during the war in Croatia in the 1990s.

Being feared isn't as nice as being loved, but its a lot more reliable if your goal is power.

> If I have been a little too punctual in describing these monsters in all their lineaments and colours, I hope mankind will know them, the better to avoid them, my treatise being both a satire against them, and a true character of them... — N Machiavelli (at least according to the frontispiece of Burnham's "The Managerial Revolution")

Eh, for a while, but clearly long term it seems to tend to not work out.

Working pretty good in North Korea.

Not really, fear of the ruler has little to do with the longevity of dprk. Support and protection by China are the only reason that government still exists.

“Be useful to / shameful if you fail” to a much more powerful entity is more like it when it comes to “ways to power”.

> particularly considering that their troops are already popularly referred to as 'orcs', and Russia itself as 'Mordor'.

The first source I found: https://archive.vn/q3VVx

Based on the title alone, I was shocked that a parody article made our to the HN front page, and that a .ru domain was hosting comedy at the expense of Putin.

The truth was even stranger...

Putin so far forged only 8 Rings of Power + the Ruling Ring.

Yes, you're right - I meant nine rings altogether, with one of being the ruling ring.

Putin doesn't care one iota about the Lord of the Rings Western non-sense. In fact, most of the people around these parts of the continent (Eastern Europe) don't care about the novels themselves, apart from a very thin layer of the Westernised middle-class (I'm part of that Westernised middle-class layer and I don't care for the books, the movies were interesting for an one-time viewing 20 years ago).

But, yes, people from the West will always make everything be about them.

Later edit: If anything, it is Tolkien who has borrowed "the giving of expensive jewellery as an act of power" from Tsarist Russia, see articles like this one [1] about how 19th century Russian emperors were delighted in making such gifts. If anything, Putin wants to be a 19th century Russian emperor, again, he doesn't care at all about Western-created stupid memes.

[1] https://www.thejewelleryeditor.com/jewellery/article/as-the-...

> most of the people around these parts of the continent (Eastern Europe) don't care about the novels themselves

That’s false. The Tolkien novels are very well known in Russia. There was a huge role playing subculture in 90s and 00s, probably still is.

Somehow I think that most of the people that were into that back then are now posting from Georgia, Belgrade or Kazakhstan, if not them, then their kids. That was my point, leaders like Putin don't focus on the thin layer of the Westernised middle class.

Nobody is claiming he does. The article is merely pointing out the irony of the situation.

> most of the people around these parts of the continent (Eastern Europe) don't care about the novels themselves

[Citation needed]

This is not reddit, but I can invite you to some of the most frequented old books stores in Bucharest where almost no-one purchases the Ring books. Yes, I do go there religiously two days out of three.

Fascinating. You have an anecdote. Which is about as convincing as any anecdote of my own. I know plenty of people in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia who all love Tolkien’s work.

Does my anecdote trump yours, do you think?

You think tributes and gifts of this sort are an invention of Tsarist Russia?

They certainly aren't an invention of a geeky writer from mid 20th century England, like most of the comments in here would seem to suggest. So much Eurocentrism and geek-centrism that it hurts.

Surely Last Ringbearer got some PR there

In the original story they became Nazgûl after receiving the rings

Perhaps the real Nazgûl were the friends we made along the way.

This just... WAAAAAAY too on the nose...

the whole putin saga reminds more of wizards (1977) than lord of the rings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_(film)

Unintentionally, this exemplifies why Russia will always be a second-rate power. For it's internal politicking it has to reference art (Tolkien) from the English speaking world. This is a self-own.

Is this real? Or a parody?

Real. Would you believe TASS? https://tass.com/politics/1556455

Why didn't the US just use eagles instead of arming Ukraine?

That would be the most American thing ever

F-15 Eagles that is.

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

Hmmm, speaking of rings, this Putin person seems to like rings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggqb4wUpa5w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCgi7roudzc

great comment: "How did you manage to turn a story that takes Robert Kraft 15 seconds to tell into a 9 minute video?"

More like the GodFather rather than Lord of the Rings.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/224124518925923884/

It will interesting to see who dares to appear in public without their ring.

Is this a Russian tradition or something new?

'Are we the baddies?' vibes

War is baddy, but I feel like there's something above, something where any living being emitting 10 equivalent tonnes of CO2 per year or more is an accidental baddy

Sorry, just to clarify, your point is that genocide is fine because other countries are harming the environment?

I said war is bad and harming the environment is worse, no relationships between the 2, but the western "good" people are not so good

Pollution is already causing 10 million deaths/year and this gets worse. I live near a road, and have snow-like dust in my apartment every day from pollution, this can't be good in the lungs. Most people in developed countries, including Russia, have a footprint way too high, over 6T CO2 year, and this is the reason we're all unfortunately heading into trouble and future environmental wars.

If there is no relation between the two, then what are you looking to achieve with your comment? Because what you're doing sounds an awful lot like whataboutism[0], which suggests tacit defence on your part of the russian federation's terrorism and genocide.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

The initial comment is "Are we the baddies?" (compared to pro-russian people)

I'm just saying it's not as simple as 0 or 1

absolutely no defense of any kind of violence, terrorism and any war, that's more your perception

The initial comment is a reference to a comedy sketch by David Mitchell and Robert Webb. In the sketch, it is two Nazi soldiers discussing the idea that they might be on the wrong side of history.

So no, this is not are Westerners "baddies" compared to pro-russian people.

> I'm just saying it's not as simple as 0 or 1

Wow. Political topics have nuance. Thank you for your deep, invaluable insight. Where would we be without your Russell Brand-esque hey bro, open your mind because there are complexities in real life style ponderings.

So he said "Are we the baddies" speaking as an imaginary russian soldier? If so, sorry I misunderstood, thought he said it as a westerner

a famous gift from soviet union.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

these rings should bear a close examination.

Rings alone are not enough to recreate Mordor. IIRC, that requires some actual magic.

No magic needed*; ring is MacGuffin:

> The Ring itself is a luxurious ornament, but powerless, crafted by the Nazgûl (a group of ancient scientists and philosophers who take turns as the Nine to guide Mordor through its industrialization) to distract Gandalf and the Elves while Mordor built up its army.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer#Plot

(compare https://allpoetry.com/The-Persian-Version )

* if one doesn't read tale by reactionary JRRT, that or otherwise.

the Nazgûl (a group of ancient scientists and philosophers who take turns as the Nine to guide Mordor through its industrialization)

Wow, that sounds like fiction for readers who might have complained that Christopher Tolkien's nth collection of half-baked unfinished tales was not boring enough.

It's freely available and worth a read. While it's unlikely to see the average teen's heart on fire, most HN readers will definitely get a kick out of it.

We have an anti-Russian-government song that says

    You don't know your place and where you belong,
    you mess with Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia
    Army of bandits and a band of orcs,
    meanwhile your own country looks like Mordor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAKa4w2jv9w

Well he still has the Super Bowl ring he stole from Robert Kraft too

I think about this all the time. That should be part of the final peace settlement.

https://m.soundcloud.com/bwalker/time-travelin-trump

Why is this post flagged?

Trump's magical glowing orb from 2017: https://twitter.com/billkristol/status/866398789392793600

thats the missing palantir !

Like, you're my bitches now? I guess they know that already

Can people from the periphery still get power in Russia? In the Soviet Union, many did:

Kaganovich, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Chernenko, Gorbachev were from Ukraine or had Ukrainian ties.

Stalin, Beria, Putin were/are from Georgia or had Georgian ties.

Vladimir went down to Georgia, he was lookin for some land to steal,

he was in a bind cause he was way behind

as he was starting world war three

isn't Putin from Petrograd?

Leningrad to be precise. And it’s hardly a peripheral city.

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