This is part of the collection A Gaucho Throws the I Ching
Feb 6, 2022
“Vladimir Vladimirovich with all due respect the time to take the Donbas was 2014.”
Vladimir as always held a steely gaze “Medvedev, you clearly have no clue how to read the chessboard. We would have triggered retaliation we could not easily handle. In 2014, the first pipeline was just completed, Nord Stream 2 would have given us additional leverage.”
“And where is that leverage now Vladimir, Nord Stream 2 was shut down” Medvedev interrupted.
Vladimir shrugged, “The US was in Afghanistan, right near our border Dmitry, threatening to invade Iran, making incursions into Syria, stalling to build their own pipeline. A calm and measured stance was correct in 2014, and it still stands today.”
“The calm and measured stance caused our people in Donbas to be harassed and persecuted for seven years, Vladimir. How long do you expect our people to be tortured like this?
Peskov interrupted, attempting to defuse the discussion, “Dmitry we all agree that taking the Donbas back is reasonable. Overreach is an American trait; we don’t wish to adopt it.”
Vladimir turned to Medvedev with a slight gesture of his hand, as if to query a rebuttal.
Medvedev’s face scrunched up into a sneer, “Look at how they treat us, Vladimir. Just one example, this young woman Daria, in Dnipropetrovsk, these SBU pigs kidnap her and torture her, suffocating her. They get a “confession” and put her on trial. All to cover up their own misdeeds. This is just one example of how these swine operate.”
A signal from one of the Kremlin Regiment indicates to Vladimir what comes next.
“Gentlemen we will pick up this discussion shortly, but please let us watch the finals of the team skating event.”
Peskov smiled, “Kamila is performing”.
Peskov knew Vladimir’s weak points as well as anyone. Vladimir viewed the games, particularly gymnastics and figure skating, as one of the few respites he could afford to take as leader. The personnel were wary of Vladimir’s time, only waiting until the final skater of the Russian team, Kamila Valieva, took the ice.
Kamila Valieva’s music for her long program has been “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel. A standard for decades in skating, Vladimir appreciated Anna Scherbakova’s choice of Tchaikovsky’s Rites of Spring. But the hypnotic, enduring crescendo of Bolero was ultimately triumphant. Vladimir’s nationalism would have preferred maybe Borodin’s “In the Steppe of Central Asia”, but he understood it was an international competition.
Kamila’s leotard was black and red. Unlike Anna Scherbakova, who wore a sultry outfit, Kamila appears cherubic. Kamila’s black leotard had red splashes and red gloves. As she warmed up on the ice Vladimir noted the hush of the stadium. Even when an audience is quiet, the sound travels differently in an empty stadium. The echoes of the blades slicing through the ice has more reverb in the Beijing arena than usual. When the opening notes began to play Kamila transformed from a thin teenage girl to a trained professional. From the opening choreographic sequence, Kamila was perfectly synchronized with Bolero’s rhythmic string section, and Vladimir began to get goosebumps in anticipation.
And then in a flash she did it, Kamila jumped nearly straight up, and nailed a quadruple salchow, the first for a woman in Olympic competition. Even more difficult, Kamila did a Tano variation, meaning, she held her arms straight up. Normally skaters hold their arms to their chest maintaining the center of their centrifugal force. Kamila, by raising her arms above her head, added a degree of difficulty, requiring that much poise and effort to maintain her balance. As Kamila would bring her left leg around for the fourth and final rotation, and pirouette it out behind her as she landed, she would make her hands “pop” which to Vladimir alluded to a kind of volcanic demiurge issuing forth life itself here on the ice.
Kamila’s salchow made Vladimir gasp, something no other woman was able to do in 20 years. He, who had seen everything that could have been performed by a woman. It was a small gift from Mother Russia being presented to Vladimir in a 1 s burst. Only 30s later Kamila followed up with a triple axel, now common among high level competitors. But Kamila did with such grace and precision that Vladimir smiled warmly as Bolero slowly crescendo into the next measure.
Whether the goal of sports is to inspire a nation through the elegance and grace of its participants is of some debate. Competitive sports have a masculine energy, and the beauty of the combatants is defined by the efficiency of their motion and the fluidity of their movements. This is a byproduct of their discipline, but ultimately secondary to their goal of victory. In a physical, combative sports, as in combat itself, it is frequently the case that you can win ugly. In hockey your team faces another team. The focus is the object, the audience watches the puck, and the teammates manipulate a tool to achieve a long-term goal. It is analogous to a platoon taking a flag, but in a harmless manner. In golf, the competitors play against the field. In ice skating the competitors must master their own body. Here the terrain is internal. The six inches between your ears control everything. The training distilled from childhood, and how the skater controls her body. All eyes are on Kamila. With a skater like Kamila, there was no competition. Once a talent like Kamila would master her body, there was not much the Americans or Japanese could do to compete at her level.
The American is enamored with the concept of “the diamond in the rough”. Nothing attracts the attention of the American more than their narcissistic approach to adopting a foreigner. Look at this Alyssa Liu for example. A Chinese dissident for a father. A pathic and a sadist. Dead set on having children in a test tube without a woman, without even so much having to touch a woman. Committed to the abomination of raising a child without a mother. A purposeful slap in the face to nature itself in a twisted and dark satire of sexual relations. Chasing money for the purpose of crafting a child with in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. Is this the American way? This is what America calls a diamond in the rough? Vladimir shivered.
Vladimir preferred to view diamonds amid a bejeweled crown. Consider the Fabergé egg. For fifty years the house of Fabergé designed bejeweled eggs for the Romanov family, for Russia. The craftsmanship required for the construction of even one such egg was heroic, and the gold standard for jewelry which stands to this day at the apex of its field. The mosaic egg, one of Vladimir’s favorites, had nearly 1400 diamonds, rose diamonds, topaz, sapphires, and garnets in it alone. A gem must be meticulously cut and etched with precision, for the Fabergé it must be flawless. The thought that the Mosaic Egg ended up in the hands of Armand Hammer galled Vladimir. Sadly, the fate of the house of Fabergé was intertwined with Romanov’s and the last egg was commissioned in 1919. For Vladimir, there was no further evidence needed that the enemies of the Romanov’s were the enemies of beauty itself. Not that the Romanov’s were blameless.
Vladimir’s favorite egg is the spring bouquet, housed in London at the behest of Queen Elizabeth II. How the cruel and vicious exiles twisted the knife. In Moscow Vlad had seen the emerald, green lucky egg, too fragile to be shipped to London or New York. Yes, Vladimir preferred his diamonds surrounded by thousands of other diamonds and gems, the pinnacle of luxury and the envy of jewelers internationally, a century since past.
In the mind of Vladimir, the Olympic program, and specifically gymnastics and ice skating, were to him a manifestation of the modern quest for excellence. In 19th century Russia, excellence was reflected in the opulence and luxury of the ruling class. In the 20th century, Russian excellence meant the space program and a world spanning empire. But now, in the 21st century, Russian excellence is reflected in the mastery of the Russian citizen. Sport, in Vladimir’s mind, portrayed the citizens mastery over themselves. To master one’s own body is of course not a new goal of the leader of a nation, but rather it is so old that it is largely forgotten, particularly in the West.
Ever since Karolyi left in the 80s Russian coaches and stars have always been poached by America, and even now Canada. In that dark era of 1984, there was an escape from real or imagined persecution. But even today, skaters flee to the West for money. It was 2020 when the Armenian left for Canada after training here for years.
It has been said that the key metric to professional success is the capability to manage the monotony of the daily grind of monotonous work and the petty bureaucratic squabbles and endless commutes. Another way for western commentariat to pat themselves on the back. As if a farmer or miner does have to deal with monotony. Yet the rationale does apply here, these young women, girls really at 14 and 15, have the discipline and maturity to endure and physically grueling routine, and make a career out of it. Eschewing formal schooling at an early age, waking at 4:45 am to get to the rink for early ice time. There are classes for power strokes, where the girls attempt long speed skating style strokes for one hour straight, they push off with their thighs. For hours at a time the trainers place a five-point harness around the waist and legs of the skater and a coach or trainer takes turns with a pulley attached to a fishing pole skating behind them skater. The harness has a swivel and harness training gives the girls an additional half-second or so to complete their rotations.
Yes, what began as a glorified pageant show evolved into a veritable arms race between Russia, the West, and now even China and Japan. A simple yet elegant single axel could have won an international competition until the 1970s. Now there is a cottage industry measuring the kinematic variables involved in a launch and rotational rate captured by high-speed video cameras recording pre-rotation, spin, blade angle upon landing, all played back for the coaches and skaters. There is a ballet class to perfect poise and grace of the artistic elements, how to control the hands at the end of a spin or a flourish for the finale, to raise your arms and arch your back with precision and timing of a music box, in time with the skater’s music.
Kamila next added a quadruple toe loop (the second quad in the program) and added a triple toe loop to the combination, looking effortless. A triple toe loop, which would have been enough to bring home the gold as recently as 8 years ago. This impressive move was just added on at the end of a combination with the quad preceding. In less that 1.5 sec, Kamila Valieva provided the pinnacle of female figure skating.
After so many coaches lost to the West, Vladimir finally gets to see Coach Eteri in action. Eteri Tutberidze had gained notoriety for training skaters too hard at an early age and burning them out before they turned 18. Like Vladimir, Coach Eteri was considered a tyrant. Kamila was weighed often throughout the day and was kept on a strict diet, on top of hours of rotation. As opposed to the narcissistic perverts in the West, who fondle and abuse these young athletes. When he saw the wide-eyed hawkish face of Eteri, he saw the eyes of a hunter. Her face was frozen like the Kara Sea in February, betraying none of her true emotions. Vladimir saw a kindred spirit, he knew, just from a glance, that would not betray Mother Russia to sell blueberry vapes in the Western shopping mall called America. Under different circumstances they could have been lovers, she was 20 years his junior after all. He understood her passion for perfection, their lives were parallel. Coach Eteri was attempting the impossible, an entire squad of skaters, a system of training producing a factory of skaters doing quadruple jumps and triple axels regularly, quite the envy of the world. And she was doing it for Russia. How their enemies hated to be upstaged.
But it was also Coach Eteri’s idea to provide a Shibu Ani for Kamila, which became Kamila’s most prized companion. There were many short videos circulating with Kamila and the other skaters dancing lightly, never in a suggestive way, (she was only 15). These were good for morale.
When elite level men and even female figure skaters attempt a lutz, the requirement is to use the pick of your left skate to dig into the ice as you begin your ascent. This is taught to beginners with a bend to the knee, to swing it down like a hammer striking the ice. This striking motion, to Vladimir, has an aggressive overtone, a violent downward stabbing.
Not so with Kamila. Kamila keeps her left leg poised and at a 45-degree angle off her hip. As Kamila begins her ascent her left skate kisses the ice ever so slightly, with no bend of the left knee. Her detractors, usually envious Americans, call this a lootz or a looptz because the power is generated by the right leg with only this cursory tap from the left toe pic. Experts and detractors can argue whether the form is appropriate, but Vladimir noticed and appreciated the ultimate femininity of this style.
When Anna Scherbokova or Alexandra Trusova skated, Vladimir could feel they were feeding off the energy of the crowd. This is what made Olympic judges salivate. They liked “performers.” But with Kamila it was a different animal altogether. With Kamila, Vladimir felt she could ice skate all day long, like the old babushkas skating across a frozen lake to go to market, even if no one was watching. It was the action in and of itself that brought her to this, and it did not matter who was in the audience. And this is what elevated Kamila’s skating to a gracefulness and elegance beyond searching for approval from the judges.
Vladimir watched the competition and as he saw the end of this perfect routine with several quad lutz, quad salchows and triple axels stunningly perfect. He believed he saw what he thought showed evidence that whether it be some sort of Odinic figure or whether it was God in the Hebraic sense that something up there was still a grand design and as a camera shot of Kamila Valieva spinning while her left leg made and impossible looking 135 degree angle, that the same planet that can have the suffering and cruelty of the SBU torturing innocent Russians, could also have this pinnacle of human fortitude and graciousness.
The camera pans on Kamila Valieva’s face Vladimir noticed Kamila’s face scrunched up in anguish.
“Why is she so upset?”
Vladimir was stunned, as it was the most beautiful performance he had ever seen in his life, the highest scoring Olympic event in history even with the fall, and here Kamila was weeping. Vladimir made a motion and some of the delegation began texting and phoning representatives in Sochi. The answers percolating back from the RIC delegation in Sochi was that blood tests collected from December showed evidence of trimetazidine, giving Kamila a competitive edge.
If the IOC knew this as early as December, why allow Kamila to compete at all?
The IOC wanted their pound of flesh from Russia. Everything was cast in stone, the IOC wanted to sell more Nike’s and Toyota’s, and they used Kamila to suit their purpose, and then humiliated her publicly and all but forbade her from competing in the individual events. For Russia, a team victory. But what Vladimir desired, and what Coach Eteri strove for, the triple crown of gold, silver, and bronze in the individual events, eluded their grasp. Vladimir gave a motion and security began clearing the room of Russian Olympic committee officials.
“Our enemies will spare us no quarter,” said Vladimir. “If they will humiliate this innocent girl in this manner, who has no fault in this matter, how can we expect them to show us any mercy? I propose, that we take Kherson, we take Odessa, and we must also take Kiew.”
Here, the normally belligerent Medvedev gulped.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am not sure we have the troops to do it.
“No quarter will be given us, remember that. We must take it all, or not even try. The time for stealth has passed.”
And at that fateful moment Vladimir and his associates marked the calendar for February 24th, and began positioning soldiers on the border.