Since the beginning of the invasion, Kyiv has regularly compared Russia to "Mordor", the realm of the despot Sauron from the "Lord of the Rings" saga. Russia's President Putin is breathing new life into the analogy itself. Like Sauron in the trilogy, he distributes rings to allied rulers.
At an informal meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russian President Vladimir Putin gave eight rings to the representatives of former Soviet republics - apparently deliberately raising parallels to the fantasy trilogy "Lord of the Rings": commentators compare the Russian head of state with the evil ruler Sauron who appears in the books by J.R.R. Tolkien gifted nine rings to human rulers, who then became his servants.
At Tuesday's CIS meeting in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin presented the heads of state of Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan each with a gold ring bearing the inscription "Happy New Year 2023" and the CIS emblem . A ninth ring went to Putin himself. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would not wear his ring.
"Lord of the Rings" comparisons have not been uncommon since the Russian attack on Ukraine. Kremlin critics, especially Ukrainian society, often compare Putin to Gollum: the character is corrupted by a particularly powerful ring of Sauron. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is often compared to the character of Frodo, who sets out to destroy this ring. According to this narrative, Russia is regularly compared to "Mordor," the kingdom of Sauron, and Russian soldiers to "Orcs," the soldiers of Sauron.
The nine rings are obviously a "joke" by the Kremlin, wrote the Russian political scientist Ekaterina Schulman in the online channel Telegram. According to her, the CIS emblem on the rings is reminiscent of the shape of the "Eye of Sauron" featured in the Hollywood film adaptation of the book by J.R.R. Tolkien is shown.
The idea of a "ring community" between the nine heads of state "is not really our topic under the current circumstances," said journalist Dmitri Drize on the Russian radio station Kommersant FM. The only CIS official seen with his ring on his finger was Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko - one of the few full supporters of Putin's offensive in Ukraine.
