I have never thought much about ears or how they differ, which, last week, made studying the ears of Russia’s president a voyage of discovery.
Certainly, as the claims flared up, yet again, that the man we keep seeing is no longer Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainians reported that the man with President Putin’s ears has not been seen for over a year, it isn’t hard to find myriad photos of the president, sideways on.
And, it’s true, in fact, that President Vladimir Putin has managed to change his ears this year, compared with his ears in 2002, 2012 and 2018, which were the ones I checked.
Without a jot of conspiracy theory, how could it be possible to change the ratio of someone’s ears, width to length, creating a longer ear that’s thinner from side to side, let alone move the positioning of its ridges, bumps and spaces?
But as Putin has moved from a small, pert ear past, to a longer, thinner ear present, I am happy to believe my own eyes on this.
So, where is the man with Vladimir Putin’s ears? Reaching out into the community of oligarchs, back came the answer. ‘It’s common knowledge he’s been replaced,’ I was told. ‘But no one is allowed to talk about it.’
And, indeed, the prominent Russian, pro-war blogger, Igor Girkin, who had been outspoken in many ways without penalty, and seemingly untouchable, finally stated that the man presenting as Putin was not Putin, and did, promptly, get arrested.
So, what does it mean if Vladimir Putin has gone? I can see that for his inner circle, they would really want never to declare his departure, as all their positions were part of his regime, and it would have moved all of them into deep insecurity and potential losses.
But who, then, is running Russia and making the decisions? And how long can a country run with a fake president?
With all these information fantasies powerful people try to perpetuate, there comes an endpoint. They cannot pull it off indefinitely.
People will never stop talking to their closest friends. At some point, the rulers of Russia are going to have to tell us what happened to President Putin and who is ruling Russia now.
And I sure hope they have a plan for that, or it’s going to be a whole lot worse after a year of fakes than if he died in order, at the time that he did.
Indeed, it’s hard to see how moving from a hologram president to an acceptance he has gone can now be managed without chaos. But nor can it be avoided forever. These crazy times, we live in.
The writer is a development communication specialist.
