OPINION:
After reading more and more about the investigation into President Trump’s supposed collusion with Russia, Robert Mueller sounds more and more like Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, Joseph Stalin’s hit man. Under Beria, over 500 NKVD agents and 30,000 Red Army officers were executed. In addition, the NKVD was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Soviet citizens convicted of high treason by false, sometimes even absurd, accusations.
Soviet-era humor typified the methods used by Beria and his people with the following joke: Once, Stalin met a delegation of workers from the Urals. When the workers left, Stalin looked around for his pipe but didn’t see it. He called Beria and said, “Lavrentiy, my pipe disappeared after the workers left.” Beria said, “Yes, Yosif Vissarionovich, I’ll immediately take proper measures.”
Ten minutes later, Stalin pulled out a drawer in his desk and saw his pipe. He struck a match, puffed out a ring of smoke, dialed Beria’s number and said, “Lavrentiy, my pipe’s been found.”
“What a pity,” Beria said. “All of them have just confessed.”
JIM HONTZ
Riverdale, Md.
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