Today’s Le Monde carries on the front page a stark cartoon by Pancho. On the barren bottom of the ocean there lists a black submarine. The murky water around it is dark green. Sparse bubbles are rising from the stranded vessel. The name of the submarine is written in large letters on its side: Russia. And that is all. The dumb image is so simple and powerful that I bought the newspaper, the best in the world in my opinion, and read most of it. As I write, the crew of the Russian submarine is still clinging to life, as are the inmates of their miserable country—the hub of the erstwhile First Country of Socialism.