masha bear russian cartoon
© Masha and the Bear
(Overheard by our secret source in the Kremlin)

- What a day! The Americans are really putting the boots to Merkel on Nord Stream, we've got demos in Khabarovsk and now Batko's screwing up. Some days it's just too much.

- We gotta come up with something to take people's minds off things, Boss.

- Yeah, but what? No military anniversaries coming up. Do we have any new weapons which we can show?

- Not unless you count the re-done Bear.

- Nah, that won't work - the Americans will just say it's obsolete. Why it's almost as old at their B-52!

- How about a video of the Tsar Bomba?

- Always good to remind the neo-cons that they may have Big Democracy but we've got Big Bomb. But I want something else.

- We could do a video of pretty girls singing that they're Putingirls.

- Didn't Obama did that? That's as fake as the reset was.

- Wait Boss! I've got it. Let's poison somebody! That'll will change the headlines. Sure worked that last few times.

- Hmmmm, sounds good, keep talking.

- We'll poison that Navalniy guy...

- Who?

- You know, the guy the Americans think you're obsessed with.

- Isn't he in France, in a lunatic asylum?

- No, the other guy.

- Oh yeah, I think I remember. OK so we poison him, then what?

- Well, he won't die of course - our poisons are no good - and, after a day or two we let him go to some NATO country and they'll say he was poisoned.

- Well, that will certainly change the headlines, let's do it.

- OK Boss, and while people are obsessed with that, we can swing a few elections in the West.

- Ah yes, gotta remember to talk to Xi and coordinate our efforts. I'm still pissed off that he thinks he can fix a US election. He can do Japan, Australia, Korea and the others. That's what multipolarism is - you do yours, we do ours.