Investigator’s name – Russian – Blogs – Echo of Moscow, 12/26/2021
Putin does not stand on ceremony when he talks about criminals. His most famous expression “Soak in the toilet” (1999) concerned terrorists who must be destroyed immediately – without trial or investigation. With this approach, of course, mistakes are possible (such as banging an innocent person), but what can you do; the forest is being cut down – the chips are flying.
In 2017, at a reception in the Kremlin, Putin announced his instructions to the official website kremlin.ru: “When arresting (criminals), act, of course, only within the framework of the law, but when the life and health of our employees and officers is threatened, act decisively, take no one prisoner, eliminate the bandits on the spot. “
These two examples (between the size of 18) are not given here for legal or aesthetic purposes, but purely for linguistic assessment. Simply put, we are interested in the president’s usual language, his vocabulary, and not his attitude towards the bandits, which, by the way, we completely share.
Over the 21 years of his leadership in Russia, Putin has spoken out about criminals dozens of times in extremely harsh and very understandable terms. Yes, and all normal people (except for ideological opponents of the death penalty) in such cases say to destroy, liquidate, shoot, etc.
However, different people talk about the death of different people. Language conveys our attitude towards the deceased. About someone they will simply say “died” or “died”, about a righteous man – “rested”, “left the vale of the earth”, and about someone – “died”, “a dog’s death”.
It was a historical and philological excursion. Now – to the murder case. Three days ago, at the Big Press Conference, the President of Russia was asked a question (as knowledgeable people assure, it was unexpected for him). We quote from the official website kremlin.ru.
QUESTION. Vladimir Vladimirovich, do you know the names of those who ordered the murders of Politkovskaya and Nemtsov? “.
PUTIN. I did everything to solve these crimes, and the corresponding instructions, orders, orders were given to all law enforcement and special services (hereinafter, our italics. – A.M.) As you know, people are imprisoned for crimes committed. There is an opinion that they are not customers, there is an opinion that customers are somewhere outside the brackets. But they did everything to expose the perpetrators of these crimes.
And in general, I believe that this settling scores it only goes to the detriment of our country. This can be more difficult in those who do not understand what they are doing. But he must understand that the state will fight against criminal manifestations of this kind. Everything that depends on us, we will do in the future. If there really are some customers behind this, about which we do not know, we will look for them. You asked about the murders that unfortunately took place in our country. You say: where are the customers? People are in jail. Customers or not customers, but in any case, they are in prison.
Let’s try to understand this speech. If the question (as we are assured) was really unexpected, then the spontaneous answer is all the more interesting.
The President said: “I did everything to solve these crimes.” But investigators solve crimes. What exactly did the president do? He says that he gave “instructions, instructions, orders.” Be it, for example, in the USA, France, Italy, etc. – Congress or Parliament would create a commission and demanded to present these instructions, orders, and the press would also demand them. This is very interesting: how exactly did the president interfere with the investigation? Most recently, we saw how the US Congress tormented Trump and the most important persons of his administration, demanding not only documents, but even telephone records.
Our president said that these murders – “Settlement of scores”… Some illiterate Chechens and a bribe-taker, about whom Politkovskaya is never mentioned, were there personal accounts with her? It seems that someone completely different presented a personal bill to her. And Nemtsov, then, had personal accounts again with unknown Chechens? Is it the investigators who reported this to Putin, or is it his own ideas – it is not known.
The President said: “Even if we are talking about some motives of a political nature, it can be folded in the minds of those who do not understand what he is doing. But he must understand … “. What should we think when we hear how in one phrase the aggregate of criminals (“in the heads of those who”) turns into one (“he does, he must understand”)?
The President said: “If there really are some customers behind it” – But does anyone have any doubts that these are contract killings? In our opinion, the expression “if really” in this case is not a doubt, but hypocrisy, at best, an unfortunate wording.
The President said: “There is an opinion that the customers are somewhere outside the brackets, that they are hidden or hid, but the authorities of the investigation and inquiry are not yet aware of this.” Sorry, but the authorities know for sure that the customers are hiding, so to speak. Where? – these bodies may not know, but what they are hiding, they know. Again, there is a very important difference between the verbs “hidden” and “hidden”. “Hidden” means that someone is hiding the criminals, and “hiding” looks like an attempt to correct the previous careless word in this phrase.
And what is “Left out of brackets”? No one can remain outside the brackets. Only a certain author can leave something or someone outside the brackets – that is, in the shadows.
The President said: “Customers or not customers, but, in any case, they are in prison.” Does he seriously think that there is no difference between the performers and the customer – if only someone was sitting?
And finally, the most striking linguistic statement by the president. He said: “We did everything to expose those responsible for these crimes.
“Killed”? Soldiers are dying at the front. Heroes are dying in the movies. Doctors die saving the sick. About the bandits who put up armed resistance, they say “liquidated”, “destroyed”, “died”, the most restrained version: “killed”.
“Perished” – so they say about comrades in arms. Why did the President of Russia (who is known for extremely harsh language about the bandits) get out such an unfortunate phrase? – we do not have this question.