St. Petersburg residents have their hairdos done a-la Trump, artists draw portraits of the 45th American President, souvenir shops sell nesting dolls featuring his face. Let alone political analysts who keep discussing possible shifts in the Russian-American relations in the future.
As NTV channel reported, on January 20 some St. Petersburg residents seemed to have gone crazy.
A client of a hairdressing salon preferred to have his hairdo done a la Trump with the barber having been forced to deeply get into the knowledge of how to do it.
Companies producing nesting dolls (matreshkas) and T-shirts have Donald Trump pictured on their production saying that there is strong demand for this.
A seafood restaurant made some changes to its menu to honor the Trump’s inauguration.
And the list goes on.
Even before the Trump’s victory in November last year, artist Vyacheslav Volkov drew a portrait of the new President. He said in an interview with a newspaper that he hoped that Trump would win the elections and he had great sympathy with him as the new President is a self-made man and was forced to start again after bankruptcies.
Shortly before his triumph, Trump became an honorary member of the Irbis cossacks organization.
So what is it, madness? We think not. All this is quite explainable as the new U.S. President is widely seen by Russians as a friend of Russia who can help ease the tensions between the both countries and maybe even lift the sanctions.
Ironically, it’s namely St. Petersburg where Mr. Trump was reported to have taken party in parties with girls of… questionable profession and reputation, the rumors that were repeatedly denied by the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin in person.
Trump visited St. Petersburg (Leningrad) in 1987 to negotiate a project of building hotels here. The idea was not realized as Trump was not sure in the qualification of Soviet building companies. In his interviews following the trip to the Soviet Union he was reportedly criticizing Gorbachev’s policy and predicted the collapse of the country. Well, good intuition is a must-have for a politician.
Though, despite of all the sympathy, there were no any public meetings to cheer the Trump’s arrival in the White House. Why? Maybe because it’s very difficult to get a meeting permitted in Russia by authorities (all the meetings are subject to an approval, otherwise they are considered illegal), no matter whether your gathering is in favor of an allegedly Russia’s friend or not.