For the last five hundred years, posh “society,” is where the wealthiest and most influential people in the world mingled, inter-married and conducted business. If you’ve ever watched “Downton Abbey”, “The Gilded Age” or even “Crazy Rich Asians” you’ll know what I mean.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - a psychological pyramid that describes human fulfillment - states that part of our human nature (once your basic needs are met) is the desire to attain social position. Having mere wealth is just not enough once you are in the top levels of achievement.

In the 1970’s Arab money started pouring into the west. Arab petro-dollars bought swaths of land in the UK, in London and New York. The Arabs dazzled everyone with their wealth and bling but they never penetrated posh society.

Then in the 90s the second, Asian wave, of new wealth washed eastward and they had a bit more success in society. But starting about 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians started coming to the west with new money to invest - in the UK, in particular.

Russia became the billionaire capital of the world, oligarchs were everywhere buying anything not nailed down and eventually trying to insinuate themselves into posh “society”. Tatler (THE magazine of society) even began publishing a Russian version. If you were a wealthy Russian, you were moving up. By 2022, they weren’t too far from the edge of REAL success.

That’s what evaporated three weeks ago - with the invasion of Ukraine - Russia’s luxury infrastructure and their hopes of acceptance into posh society. Gucci, Chanel, Hermès, Dior, Apple and Tatler (just to name a few luxury brands) have left Russia to rot. If you’re Russian now, the chances of being admitted into posh society are gone for the next 20 years - at least.

You may say “so what?” Well, one way a dictator holds onto power is through mercantile largess. The granting of rights within the Russian sphere of influence - to control and distribute goods and services - is how oligarchs are created. The support of these oligarchs is important and transactional.

A man with a 100-million dollar yacht - looking at what chunks of their wealth may well be confiscated in the west - or lost to the Ruble’s collapse - could easily offer life-changing wealth to any henchman willing to end Putin one way or another.

Will this happen? I don’t know. But this is the system they’ve set up for themselves.

As President Vladimir Putin's longtime spokesman Dmitry Peskov wed Olympic figure skating champion Tatyana Navka this weekend in a glitzy seaside ceremony, a multimillion-ruble watch spotted on the groom's wrist sparked a media frenzy.

The ceremony was held in the Olympic host city of Sochi at the ultra-luxurious Rodina (Motherland) Hotel, the entirety of which was reserved for Peskov and Navka's hundreds of celebrity guests.

In July, the bride-to-be said in an interview with Tatler magazine that Putin had been among the invited guests. By Sunday it remained unclear whether he had attended.

On the eve of the wedding, local news sites reported that guests from the three nearby hotels had been relocated in order to ensure security.

"All the beaches [nearby] will be guarded. Today they began to evict guests from three neighboring hotels. They will be given different accommodations for three days and will be able to return after the wedding," an unnamed employee of the Rodina hotel was cited as saying Friday by local news site Bloknot.

The morning after the nuptials, two photos quickly dominated Russian headlines: a photo of Peskov and Navka kissing after being pronounced man and wife, and a photo of the official wearing a watch that — according to opposition leader Alexei Navalny — was worth some $620,000.

Navalny claimed in an irate blog post Sunday that it would have been impossible for Peskov to have paid for the watch on his official salary, which the activist pegged at about 9 million rubles ($146,000) annually.

Peskov was quick to defend himself, telling the RBC news agency that the watch had been a wedding gift from his bride, who has become a popular television personality since winning Olympic gold in 2006. But bloggers found photos of him wearing it several months ago in the Instagram account of his daughter Yelizaveta Peskova, news site Meduza reported.

Meanwhile, former federal environmental inspector Oleg Mitvol, who was among the glitterati in attendance, told tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets that the whole affair had been an elaborate ruse.

According to Mitvol, Peskov borrowed the watch from one of his well-heeled guests in a conscious effort to toy with the media and perpetuate a baseless sensation.

Rumors about Peskov's relationship with Navka have provided ample Russian tabloid fodder since 2012, when he divorced his second wife Yekaterina, The Moscow Times reported last month.

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I don't like the way
how I have to take all the blame for arguments
How you threaten to **** me up
Until I slit my wrist in the bathtub
then tell me I am the one who stirs all the **** up

You thicken the air I breathe
In
Out
You cremated the butterflies in my stomach
That I had for you, once upon a time
Dread filled my lungs whenever you talked

Now they can't see anything wrong, you buy me
Tiffany's on the first date made love to me on the
third. Your Loro Piana goes with my dress, your
Patek Phillipe matches my Cartier.
Smile and wave
Smile on, for the camera.
Even our cat can end up on Tatler's cover

But it's faultless right? Picture perfect, look at us.
Covered it up, no no, no one must see
Your deceits and my tears, how a tornado meets
a volcano, we are falling apart.
Fear. Anxiety. Scars. You leave me burning, and I
stab a knife in your heart

I wanna quit you up.

The molten kisses, blazen passion
We had. I bit my tongue and traded it in
The starry eyes you had for me. I am sorry
I lied. I did not feel the same.
I took a hammer to your heart which so
rarely
opened up for
Me. Me?
I did not deserve all the love you had for me.

So I breathed glossy, and decided to trade it in
I put on my act, shimmered and shined.
I knew my brain and beauty.Charmed far beyond
that secluded Manchester town, where
you hailed from.
I was from the city lights. I was on the brink of pyramid top.
Daddy was Sipping Moet, but not yet Perignon.
The Brink is the worst.
So I tossed you and climbed up.

I got more than I ever desired.
Diamonds big as plums. Hunting, in a wood
named after his Papa. My dog was on Tatler!
Vogue wrote about my gown.
But I knew you would need to be gone.

So in this loophole of vanity and fame, diamonds and pearls
I miss you late nights alone drenched in icy cold hearts
But I knew my choice would go, and I would miss you
tonight, yes I would. Your warmth haunts my memories.
Smile. Honey, Smile. Let your ambition and greed overpower love.
I blink
Once
Twice
I don't need warmth. I will be back to that life happy. At the break of dawn.

10:39:47
She should be married by now
I watched
The black hand on the white basel
tick on, reflecting my poker face
with the Patek Phillipe logo

10:41:35
Numb. Pain. Pain or numb?
It should be me, she was the one
I had her, she was mine
She likes tomato juice, miniatures
Black Louboutins in size 4 and a half
Tatler, oreo cheese Dairy Queen blizzard
Mint tea, kebab and omakase

10:42:23
Dance. Pole or Burlesque?
body rock hard, eyes on me
It should be me, down the aisle
Her lips always red, her eyes
curl up when she smiles
cat eye, plushies, flowers on fields
Books, panels, her wit sharp as knife

10:44:45
She should be walking out of church
Eyes stared at the door
I had no blue in Tiffany, red in Cartier
Blood on my hands, pyramid top
No time for her, I made it all for her
So she left me in the middle
Of an Hermes store

10:45:13
I saw her, white dress smiling
She didn't look at him
the way she looked at me
10 years ago, today, 10:45
First time I saw her, in a red dress
I opened the car door.
I crumpled my Loro Piana in the rain

10:46:34
I grabbed her, her mother screamed
Her best friend laughed, her dad sighed
The man reached for me,
I am not letting go

She walks like there's a film crew behind her
hoping that they'll find her appealing,
he strides along like Gene Kelly in that song
choreographing his moves to fit the grooves in the disc.

Risk it all, they say,
you can only fall, they say
and failures are ten for a penny.

If not in the films then the magazines?
make the cover of Tatler or Harpers,
oh, if only Mother could see me now.