The presentation of eight rings to the former leaders of the USSR allied with Moscow, by the President of Russia, has led to several interpretations, from Vladimir Putin’s intentions, to refer to the work of “The Lord of the Rings”.
On the sidelines of a summit in St. Petersburg of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Kremlin on Tuesday presented its allies with nine gold rings with the inscription “Happy New Year 2023” and the CIS emblem.
The ring was awarded to eight foreign heads of state present (Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) in addition to Vladimir Putin.
Analysts and commentators quickly began drawing comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien’s work “The Lord of the Rings,” in which the lord of evil, Sauron, offers nine rings to human rulers who then become his servants, the “Nazgûls.”
The only difference, in the book, is that Sauron secretly creates an extra ring, the Ring of Power, which allows him to control all others.
Kremlin critics, especially in Ukraine, compare Vladimir Putin with a figure corrupted by the ring of power, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Frodo, who decided to make this ring a burden, in order to destroy it.
Since the Kremlin attack in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has regularly compared Russia to “Mordor”, the kingdom of Sauron, and the Russian soldiers to “orcs”, the soldiers of Sauron.
Russian political scientist Ekaterina Shulman believes that these nine rings are a “conscious” joke of the Kremlin.
Schulman explained, through the Telegram social network, that the CIS logo present in the aforementioned episodes is reminiscent of the “Eye of Sauron”, which was depicted in the film adaptation of Tolkien’s work.
Kommersant FM’s journalist Dmitry Driz noted that the idea of a “circular society” among the nine leaders “is not part of the reality under the current circumstances.”
Moreover, there are important differences between some of the heads of state present, notably the leaders of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, with opposing views on the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Dmitry Driz also noted that Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, one of the few categorical allies of Vladimir Putin in his attack on Ukraine, was seen with the little ring on his finger.
On Tuesday night, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought to shorten the explanations.
He stressed that it is “just a souvenir for the New Year, and there is nothing special about it,” adding that Vladimir Putin will not wear his gold ring.
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