Russian internet users are unimpressed by President Vladimir Putin's award of a brand new Audi car to each medal-winning Russian athlete who competed at the London Olympics.

 

Russian TV showed the cars lined up near the Kremlin on Wednesday: an Audi A8 for each gold medalist, for silver an Audi A7 and for bronze an Audi A6.

 

The ceremony prompted bloggers on LiveJournal, Russia's most popular internet forum¹, to wonder why taxpayers²' money was being used to purchase foreign-made gifts, the presentation of which was seen as a publicity³ stunt⁴（作秀） for the authorities.

 

 

User "cassandrack" acknowledged that the gifts were "well deserved", but added: "Why are the gifts considered to come from the president? The money isn't his - the cars have been bought using our taxes, so these gifts are from all Russians. Second, why are they giving them foreign-made cars?"

 

Many bloggers and Twitter users were not impressed with the athletes receiving Audis, rather than Russian-made cars. However, there was notable（显著的） sarcasm⁵ in their comments on the topic, given the generally poor reputation of Russian-made cars.

 

TV viewers saw rows of black Audis parked by the Kremlin ready for the Olympic heroes LiveJournal user "constant77" said: "What a laugh it would be if they were given [Lada] Kalinas and Grantas :)"

 

Meanwhile, blogger "glyukomor" deplored⁶ the lavish⁷ nature of the ceremony, which took place on Red Square.

 

"Why the big show? Okay, good work, they deserved it - so come to a dealership⁸ and pick up the car. Most athletes were probably uncomfortable with all that mega-showmanship," the LiveJournal user commented.

 

That comment prompted another blogger with the alias⁹ "dimonart" to ironically suggest: "How else could the government show its beloved Russians that it cares about sport?"

 

 

Blogger "Sergeyuko" was disappointed with the "materialistic¹¹ patriotism¹² in contemporary Russia", illustrated¹³ by the handsome federal payments that medal-winners receive (between $65,000 and $135,000 per medal, according to RIA Novosti news agency), and the other perks, such as cars and flats.

 

"It is telling evidence of the very nature of the 'patriotism', 'national love' and other propagandistic nonsense", the blogger wrote.

 

To this, user "311208" responded: "Generous gifts point to the great importance of the event for the reigning¹⁴ people and their henchmen（追随者，亲信）. They are trying to cover up their insecurities before the West with splendid gifts."

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