Putin’s Zaz
According to Mosnews, Putin’s first car, an old Zaporozhets, will be put on permanent display in St Petersburg at the site of the G8 summit. How did he come to keep it so long? Would no one would buy a used car from this man?
As it happens, the valeted vehicle he showed Bush is not typical of the ZAZ 966A, of which there are much more authentic examples on any Russian street.
Neither does Putin’s Zaz have the cult appeal of the eXile’s ‘Night Flight’ Zaz - a ‘68 965A, with custom-painted naked woman on the door.
The Zaporozhets was built in the Ukraine, where you can now pay up to 15,000 dollars for a Zaz relic roadster.
Since the G8 summit was something of a non-event for Russians, why not turn the site into a celebrity car park. Mosnews does not say how Putin’s car will be displayed, but some may be familiar with Yuri Gagarin’s Volga, which was given it’s own individual showroom in the factory gardens. Too pretentious for a Zaporozhets?
How utterly hilarious! Is it really true? If so, one really has reason to wonder what goes on in Putin’s brain. However, it is perhaps more likely that the idea originates from fawns and bootlickers than from Putin himself. One cannot help wondering though, why the president has kept on to such an old rust-pile. Perhaps it is in line with his sentimental tendency towards soviet nostalgia.
It could be a sort of test marketing exercise for Putin - to see how Russians feel about a monument to his car. If well-received, he could progress to monuments of other things he once owned . . and eventually . . to granite monuments of himself. And then, cities could be renamed Putingrad and so on. As you say, it would fit in perfectly with Soviet tradition. But I hope I’m wrong.