Vladimir P is old and haggard. He loses his memory, although sometimes he imagines that he still commands a lot and terrifies everyone around him. He lives in seclusion in a dacha near Moscow, assisted by a staff that steals what he can. Luckily, his nurse, Sheremetev, is an honest man, he may be the last one left in Russia, and he takes care of him with care.
The British author Michael Honig delves into the figure of Putin with a high dose of sarcasm in the fascinating novel La senilidad de Vladímir P (Libros del Kultrum), which is now available in Spanish bookstores. Honig considers that “satire can be the most powerful form of attack” and assures that he is not afraid, but he writes under a pseudonym and does not provide photographs. In this interview with La Vanguardia, done by email, he talks in depth about the situation in Russia, its recent past, its possible future and the figure of Putin.
The idea that Putin could have done better runs through the entire novel by Honig, a great connoisseur of Russia, “a fascinating country from which I learn everything I can through its literature and its people.” “When Putin came to power, he could have chosen two paths. He could have followed the path he had started towards liberal democracy or retreated towards autocracy. He could not bring Russia to a democracy overnight. But to have moved her in this direction. Instead, he chose to use his position to do the opposite, to sink the country into the mire of kleptocracy.”
Corruption, easy money or the payment of favors are our daily bread in the Moscow that draws La senilidad de Vladimir P , because “although there are still in Russia thoughtful and upright people who struggle simply to survive, there are also agents and facilitators of corruption loyal to Putin. They are both exploiters and exploited, perpetrators and victims, and it is this deeply ambiguous reality that the novel tries to represent.”
Corrupt people who propelled Putin to power, “a man of such limited achievements and limited vision whose rise to the presidency was not accidental, but fundamental”, points out Honig, since “tragically for Russia the convergence of circumstances in 1999 meant that a man with no principles beyond his own survival, no ideology beyond a dirty love of money and almost no history was the perfect candidate. Thus Russia ended up with a stunted leader who does not see beyond his own survival and enrichment”.
“The tragedy that Putin has inflicted on Russia is to set it back long after the first steps towards democracy under Yeltsin, and to poison the ground for any successor who wants to take it forward,” adds the writer, who does not see a good exit for the Russians, because “it is very difficult to imagine that the elites who have benefited from Putin and have kept him in power will allow a relief that should decrease their wealth and influence. And more in the case of the security establishment. In a country without a democratic tradition or the rule of law, dominated by elites whose selfishness knows no bounds, how does change occur? What is the process? Removing the leader without eradicating the elites usually results in someone similar, or even worse, replacing him.”
Nevertheless, Honig does not lose all hope that a better future awaits the Russians, because you never know and “the successor could surprise us and the Russian people themselves, in time, once the reins are loosened, could surprise us even more”.
Putin has left behind a trail of corpses, those who oppose him are in the crosshairs, and Honig embraces his security measures even as he claims he does not fear him: “It is a universally known fact that dictators have no sense of humor, at least with respect to themselves. The more direct the joke, the less they tolerate it. They cannot allow anyone to mock the superficiality on which their regime is built. To allow it would present them as the petty, brutal, selfish people they are, and would cause a riot, or a revolution,” he says.
And he adds that “satire can be the most powerful form of attack, which is why dictatorships are satire-free zones. Interestingly, although my book has been published in many countries, I have not received any offers in Russia. But there are plenty of people making fun of Putin outside of Russia, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
