(no subject)

I've started reading a 2014 novel about spy games between CIA and FSB. Here's what some clearsighted people saw in Russia back then:

“...your Russki is insecure, wants to be respected, to be feared like the old Soviet Union. They need recognition, and they hate their second-tier status in the superpower stakes. That’s why Putin’s putting together USSR 2.0, and no one is going to stand in his way.

...as the chain-wrapped corpse of the Soviet was exhumed, hauled dripping out of the swamp, and its heart was started again, and the old prisons were filled anew..."

Red Sparrow, by Jason Matthews.

upd. It sounds even better in French:

…tandis que le corps enchaîné du Soviétique était exhumé, tiré du marais encore ruisselant, que son cœur reprenait vie et que les vieilles prisons se remplissaient à nouveau…