A small bit of fluff to lighten some of my more trenchant commentary. In honor of the Chestnut Revolution, some folks have dusted off a good old Soviet joke, changed a couple of the roles, and re-released it.

The joke goes like this:

Donetsk oligarch Renat Akhmetov, an amiable man from L'viv, and a Berkut (Ukrainian SWAT) officer are all travelling in a train carriage together.

Akhmetov gets irritated, looks around, and throws a punch at the L'vivian that almost knocks him to the floor.

The L'vivian regains his composure and then thinks, "Well! That wasn't very nice. I suppose I should hit him back, but that's so rude, hitting people. Tell you what, I will wait and see if he apologizes in the next minute, and if he does, I won't hit him, but if he doesn't I will.

Forty-five seconds later, Akhmetov looks at the L'vivian, and something about how he is looking at his watch pisses Akhmetov off, so he pulls back and socks him again.

"Oof!" says the L'vivian. "Now I must say that was quite rude! If he doesn't apologize again in 30 seconds, well, I've had enough, and I'm hitting him back.

30 seconds passes and Akhmetov doesn't apologize, so the L'vivian regretfully clocks him. After Akhmetov gets his bearing again, he rolls up his sleeves, ready to really get nasty, when all of the sudden, the Berkut officer jumps in and starts wailing on Akhmetov. He beats him to a bloody pulp, and if more officers hadn't arrived at just that moment, Akhmetov would be dead.

The officer launch an investigation of course, and get statements from everyone, once Akhmetov wakes up again and is drugged enough to be able to talk.

They get everyone's statement, but the statements don't add up. "Why?" they ask the Berkut officer, "Why did you beat up Akhmetov."

"What do you mean why?" said the Berkut officer. "I saw that old fellow look at his watch every time Akhmetov nailed him, I figured he was waiting for the revolution to come. When he threw a punch, I figured it was here."