Once again the sad music, followed by the ritual, seen before, only speeded up and muted this time. The surviving leaders seemed so impatient to bury the departed one that they were almost rude to his memory. They were even more impatient to name his successor. In particular, this successor. Here, finally, was a General Secretary who could go on vacation to his native Northern Caucasus without the world wondering whether he was on a dialysis machine or a respirator. There would be no more jokes about George Bush having a season ticket to Kremlin funerals, and the programmers at Radio...
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