Russian Comedy - The Kermlins

The Kermlins, a Russian couple with a satirical Twitter feed

I posted the following on KiwiBlog and thought I better put it here, too.

... here’s some Russian comedy, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love What’s Happening in Russia, a translation from The New Republic:

I make bets. I look at all the possible ways a situation can unravel, pick the worst one, and make a bet on it. Last fall, I won the entire wardrobe—every single piece of clothing, down to the last T-shirt—of the well-known Russian journalist Oleg Kashin. He was sure, you see, that opposition leader Alexey Navalny had a chance of winning Moscow’s mayoral race. I, on the other hand, bet my collection of sandals that Navalny wouldn’t even be allowed into a run-off with the Kremlin candidate.

I was right.

Oleg acknowledged my victory, but refused to hand over the loot. Ever since, I’ve been stalking him on Instagram, commenting on every photograph he posts as follows: “What a nice shirt!”

It's not a bad strategy, really, to bet on the worst possible outcome. It's very similar to a strategy I once heard of in facing your fears: think of the worst possible thing that could happen and become ok with it. It does actually work, as I found. Normally the worst possible thing doesn't happen, but then I don't live in Russia.