Far be it from your Œcumenical Volgi to disagree with the estimable Kathy Shaidle, Canada’s angriest and sharpest bloggeuse, but apropos her argument here that United Russia is looking increasingly like the old KPSU, Confucius* says respectfully that Russia under Putin—having no ideological claims outside nationalism, no economic ideology other than “we get a cut,” and concerned solely with power politics at home and aggressive, revanchist claims abroad—looks increasingly like Nazi Germany rather than the Soviet Union.

Photo: members of the Nashi Youth Movement.

*For those who came in late: Confucius, spelled 孔夫子, is the name of the Œcumenical Volgi.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.