You know me so well, don’t you, Dima? You know how I love to start my day with a roaring good laugh. And today you were right there for me, in the morning headlines once again, with your incomparable straight-faced standup comedy routine.

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I pick on the Kremlin’s front man, Dmitry Peskov, a lot. But it’s only because he’s such an easy mark, always out front with the latest maniacal offerings from his boss. As I see it, Dima has one of the toughest jobs in the world — just below Volodymyr Zelensky on the difficulty scale, but well above Prince Harry (who creates most of his own problems).

In reality, I admire Dmitry. He soldiers on, day after day, in the face of incredible challenges, struggling to gain the world’s sympathy with the outpouring of communist crap that flows in a constant stream from the mind of Vladimir Putin. Whether or not he believes in what he is doing is irrelevant; the mere fact that he shows up for work every day is enough to warrant a medal for valor.

So I tease Dima, because we always tease the ones we care about.

And what has he done today that has me collapsing in fits of uncontrollable laughter? Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with Ukraine, or political hostages, or those evil twins from the Far East, Xi and Kim. It’s just the Paris Olympics.

Well, not “just” — they are a very significant part of the world’s attempt at maintaining some sort of civilized society. And they’re great fun to watch. But here is what happened.

On Monday, the Kremlin complained that France had refused to accredit some Russian journalists for the 2024 Paris Olympics, calling the decision “unacceptable,” and accusing French authorities of “undermining media freedom.”

Gerald Darmanin, representative of France’s Interior Ministry, said that more than 4,000 applications for accreditation had been rejected, close to 100 of them over espionage fears and others over cyberattack concerns. Some of those turned down were from Russia and Belarus.

And this is where Dmitry stepped in to respond to requests from reporters for comment:

“We consider such decisions unacceptable. We believe such decisions undermine the freedom of the media. And they certainly violate all of France’s commitments to the OSCE (The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and to other organizations. And of course we would like to see a reaction to such decisions from relevant human rights organisations, from organisations focused on ensuring all the foundations and rules of media freedom.” [Dmitry Antonov, Reuters, July 22, 2024.]

Oh, Dmitry — who writes your stuff?!! Maybe in Russia you never heard of the saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

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Now let me tell you what most definitely is NOT funny:

Alsu Kurmasheva. Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; detained in October 2023, for “failing to register as a foreign agent”; tried behind closed doors last Friday; sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison for “spreading false information about the Russian army.” Now held hostage on specious charges by Vladimir Putin, along with journalist-prisoners Evan Gershkovich, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and how many others . . . and for what? To be used as pawns in negotiations with the U.S., U.K., Germany, and other Western countries?

And we have to listen to your whining about a few reporters being excluded from the Olympics?

No, Dima. No, no, no, no, no! Not funny . . . not funny at all.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/23/24