Now The Fun Really Begins

• Stanislav Kucher
• 11.10.2026, 9:11

No one, anywhere, will be able to just sit around on the couch.

Of all those who voted for Trump, I’m most curious right now about the mindset of those former Soviet citizens who did so in the belief that “he, of all people, will stop Putin,” “only an even bigger thug can put a thug in his place,” “Trump is cunning—you’ll see how he’ll pacify Putin, outmaneuver him, and then really give it to him!”

Of course, there were fewer of these than there were Democrat-haters, ostrich-like isolationists, or fanatics ready to support him in everything and always—but there were some, and, funnily enough, they’re still around. A unique subspecies, to be sure.

Although, if you dig deeper and talk to them longer (I’ve had to), it becomes clear that behind their “stance” lies a banal, Soviet-style, masochistic adoration of the “strong hand”— or, more precisely, the shepherd, without whom the flock cannot survive.

Today I asked one such person: “So what do you think about the call to remove Zelenskyy? Another cunning maneuver?” Can you guess what he replied? He sighed deeply and said, “Maybe the right-wing international really is better than left-wing chaos?”

In short, the most interesting stuff—and not just in the U.S.—will begin after the fall elections. I suspect no one, anywhere, will be able to just sit it out on the couch.

Stanislav Kucher, “Telegram”