Recently, French actor Gérard Depardieu publicly denounced France’s rich-people tax increase proposal and accepted Russian citizenship — with much pomp and opulent pandering from the Russian press. He is also Putin’s BFF now. They’re like, hanging out and calling each other “friends” on TV and stuff.
And so, Depardieu was asked how he can be such a staunch supporter of the Kremlin boss, with all his and his friends’ notorious corruption and all that. Here are some of his most notable answers.
The Russian opposition has no program — it has nothing. Unfortunately, the masses are stupid. Only the individual is beautiful…
Up to 120,000 people at once protested Putin’s rule, his questionable election and the administration’s violations… and got plenty beat, beat bloody! But that’s ok. They’re stupid, so who cares. Depardieu did say that the opposition had “very smart people” on it, like former chess champion Garry Kasparov, “but that is good for chess and not much else.” Alright, buddy. And what about Pussy Riot, Russia’s most high profile case resulting in feminist activists currently serving two years jail time in one of the worst, coldest prisons in Russia over 40 seconds of dancing to an anti-Putin punk song inside a church where regular politico-religious propaganda broadcasts are held?
Well, Depardieu’s got some cultural relativism for you.
Imagine if these ladies walked into a mosque; they would not come out alive.
Yup, justify a medieval, bombastically corrupt act of political persecution with an exaggerated, blanket statement about unrelated religious orthodoxy.
But when I say such things in France, I am considered an idiot.
Word.
