Several months before he took office in 1999 as Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, the country's then-prime minister, stunned the world by declaring that his country would "hunt down [Chechen] terrorists, even in the toilets." He is known for such outbursts, which reveal a hint of populism. He is even known for his "Putin punchlines," similar to "Raffarin punchlines" in France – a reference to former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was known for his pithy one-liners.
These punchlines, however, deserve more political attention. For example, Putin's remarks in front of President Emmanuel Macron during their press conference on February 7, 2022, received insufficient attention. He addressed Ukraine's president, saying that Ukraine should uphold the Minsk agreements, adding, "Whether you like it or not, deal with it, my beauty." During his press conference with Mr. Macron the next day, President Volodymyr Zelensky retorted that the Russian president was correct: Ukraine was indeed a beauty, but it was too much to say "my" beauty.
It's easy to miss that the phrase in question is lifted from a crude satirical Russian folk song known as a chastushka, about the tale of Sleeping Beauty: "My beauty sleeps in the grave / I lean over and f--- you / Whether you like it or not / Deal with it, my beauty."
'The boss said it'
But there was another wisecrack – this time from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on February 18 – that went completely unnoticed outside of Russia because it was tricky to translate. The minister, emphasizing the importance of Russia signing a treaty with the United States, said: "The boss said it; the boss did it. We will make sure that everything is done in good faith. However, the poniatiya [we can translate that as "rules"] must also be respected at an international level."
What was he talking about? What "rules" was he referring to? Poniatiya aren't just any rules; they're the rules followed by mafia bosses, thugs in prison, the criminal underworld – what's known in Russian as Vory v zakone, which translates to "thief in law." As a result, "in good faith" in this context actually means "in accordance with mafia-like rules." A complete farce: Minister Lavrov, who appears to be educated, is calling for international relations to be managed by crooks! No wonder he's so certain that the Ukrainians are bombing themselves! It is also unsurprising that the Russian Federation is cheerfully violating every principle of international law.
The term poniatiya in this sense has only recently become commonplace, but the phenomenon was already extensively studied by the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn who devoted an entire chapter to it in his book The Gulag Archipelago (1974), even though the topic brings up translation challenges that are practically insurmountable.
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