Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - 4:04 PM
RFE TransMission shares this truly mind-blowing corporate anthem from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom (with English subtitles):
Jagshemash! Borat first sang it! Great success!
Kazakhstan greatest country in the world.
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium.
Other countries have inferior potassium.
-- Kazakhstan National Anthem (not!), by Sacha Baron Cohen a/k/a Borat
Do we know when this was done? I would guess it was in the immediate post-Soviet era: older cars, older style of clothing, shiny new building in an empty field, Soviet-style music; and I think Chernomyrdin appears in the closing section, who led Gazprom from 1989-92. During the Soviet era this would have been a typical thing for any large enterprise to have, and this may have been an attempt at immediate post-Soviet "rebranding" of a newly "Russian" company.
I would guess that any similar "anthem" for Gazprom today would feature a driving metal rock beat, and images of Russian power rather than friendliness.
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