There is no comparison between the societal collapse in Russia in the 90s, and your dislike the of the current administration.
Life expectancy dropped in Russia during the 90s, falling from a high of 69 in 89, to just 64.69 in 1994.
It’s now 71.59, still low by American standards, but the best it’s ever been in Russia.
Putin finds in the church a convenient instrument of social control, that is why it is resuming its role. Putin is essentially re-creating Soviet totalitarianism without the burden of Marxist ideology, and is doing it in a way that is attracting the admiration and emulation of other aspiring totalitarians. Xi knows that China has to move beyond its use of Marxism for party legitimacy, and is looking to Putin’s personal rule as a model.
Part of Putin’s model is to discredit democratic ideals as alien to the volk– they are “Atlanticist”, probably Jewish as well. You see this embraced by mini-Putins like Orban and Erdogan. Their is nothing intrinsically Russian about this ideology; it’s almost exactly what the fascists in Italy and Germany did. They encourage cynicism about democratic ideals and institutions in order to get the people to cede power to a strongman.
I’m not saying Putin is not popular in Russia; he certainly is. But that popularity is the result not of his actually helping the country but of a carefully orchestrated political process which includes the monopolization of the media, an appeal to nationalism to excuse a bad economy, and the use of terror to ruthlessly squelch dissent.
It’s cool, guys, Putin is just giving the people what they want. Don’t mind the body count.
“Putin is essentially re-creating Soviet totalitarianism without the burden of Marxist ideology”
That’s a misread. Putin is the return of White Russia.
“ Part of Putin’s model is to discredit democratic ideals as alien to the volk – they are “Atlanticist”, probably Jewish as well.”
Putin entered office as an Atlanticist, and continued to believe in it, well into his term. It was a slow disillusionment, the air campaign in Libya was one of the final breaking points.
The collapse of the liberals in Russia? That’s an entirely self inflicted state. In their naivety, they wrecked the country.
“probably Jewish as well”
And Russia has excellent relations with Israel. 20% of Israelis were born in Russia.
“mini-Putins like Orban and Erdogan”
Orban is Hungarian nationalist, and Erdogan a neo Ottoman who would like to become a sultan.
Russia has benefited from good relations with both. Remarkably in Erdogans case, given his perfidy. But the political culture that created both men is local. They are products of their countries, and in both cases, not creatures of a foreign power.
“But that popularity is the result not of his actually helping the country but of a carefully orchestrated political process which includes the monopolization of the media, an appeal to nationalism to excuse a bad economy, and the use of terror to ruthlessly squelch dissent.”
You’re being cynical. I think we should also trust Russian perceptions over ours.
They live there.
The economy is in better shape. 25% of Russians lived in poverty in 94, today that figure is 13.2%. Western sanctions have hurt, and this represents a rise from the turn of the decade, but it remains a dramatic improvement.
GDP is up. Domestic industry, and not just oil, is growing. Alcohol consumption, a serious problem historically, is down. Birth rates are up*. Life expectancy is up. Consumer goods cheaper and more accessible to Russian consumers**. Moscow is actually a vibrant city these days.
*Birth rates are an especially significant measurement. It’s a sign of that publics optimism.
**Customer service remains a foreign concept in many corners though. Buy a phone from a shop and find it’s broken? Tough luck. You’re not getting a refund.
Err… Didn’t a bunch of them leave Russia for Israel due to the persecutions they faced in Russia?
I’ve known a few Israelis whose families originally came from Russia, and that was the case for literally all of them.
In terms of national relations, do you really think that Israel and Russia are on good terms? Because… That’s clearly not true. What gives you that idea?
A common saying of people originating from Russia in Israel is “We were called Jews in Russia, but here we’re called Russians”.
Racism is everywhere.
White Russia was ruled by a Francophone hereditary aristocracy whose wealth derived almost exclusively from landownership; it’s not coming back. Putin is emulating more recent models.
What could have motivated such massive emigration? Also, Netanyahu is increasing a Putinist.
So ethno-nationalists determined to dismantle the rule of law, or Putinists.
Mussolini made the trains run on time.
Putin has made himself the leader of a Brownshirt Internationale, dedicated to transforming the world under anti-democratic and ethno-nationalist lines.
“Everyone there is being mean to poor misunderstood Vladimir Putin” is a really weird reason to come back to Qt3 after four years, but what the hell, welcome back regardless.
You’re utterly wrong, of course, @Incendiary_Lemon – he’s an anti-democratic authoritarian monster who should be opposed by moral humans at every turn, and I’m saddened that you think otherwise – but it’s good to have you back anyway.
I never thought i’d read that Putin wasn’t an opportunistic oligarch subverting Democracy (rather than fixing it) and returning to deliberate nationalism, restoring a moribund church, and arresting, imprisoning, and / or assassinating many opposition figures including government agents and journalists even outside Russia, here on Qt3. But hey!
Don’t forget that non-invasion of the Crimea as well.
The checks from RT have cleared, finally.
And I’m serious. This person has been carrying water for for Putin for a good long while now.
“White Russia was ruled by a Francophone hereditary aristocracy whose wealth derived almost exclusively from landownership; it’s not coming back. Putin is emulating more recent models.”
Let me be more specific.
It’s not land owning aristocrats hunting wolves, I appreciate that they are gone, it is their values and worldview.
And again, I don’t think that authoritarian streak is Soviet. They didn’t introduce authoritarian rule. They simply coopted the existing authoritarian state, with all of its pre existing flaws.
The complaints remain the same in each period. The corruption, and top down rule by all too powerful bureaucrats, is a feature of he Tsarist, Soviet, and the now modern era.
Of course the Soviets would have built an authoritarian state if one did not exist.
“What could have motivated such massive emigration?”
A better life, and place that would feel more like home. As mentioned above, they do not fit in with their more European cousins. And having left Russia, they miss it.
Russia is broadly spoken in Israel and Russian culture is a feature. As trade partners, the numbers are small, but the trade has strategic significance. Oil especially. Israel also relies on Moscow to restrain Syria and Iran.
Sharon made a point of courting the Russian vote, which is where some of this comes from. Putin has also expressed admiration for Israel and adopted pro Israel policies.
It’s tricky to balance that. Given their ties to Syria and Iran, but they’ve done a good job.
It’s impressive.
“Also, Netanyahu is increasing a Putanist“
He’s a vulgar ethno nationalist.
Russia is in many ways still a 19th century empire. A collection of people’s with different cultures and languages. Moscow is sensitive to that, and works hard to ensure these don’t become lines of serious division.
It could tear the country apart.
There is certainly racism, but it’s not like what you see in Israel. And Israel is of course, far more democratic.
“So ethno-nationalists determined to dismantle the rule of law, or Putinists.”
Putin isn’t an ethno nationalist.
If he adopted that kind of rhetoric, and enacted policies that promoted Russians over the other people’s, he would destroy the country.
It’s simply not viable. And the Russian leadership is acutely aware of this. Denying Russian nationalism was actually a feature of the Soviet period. There were several reasons for that, unity being the most important.
Look at how Putin talks about Islam, and how they work with their Muslim citizens.
“Putin has made himself the leader of a Brownshirt Internationale, dedicated to transforming the world under anti-democratic and ethno-nationalist lines.”
The media and the government does us a serious disfavor. They don’t understand the country, or it’s history, and so they misinterpret what’s going on, seeing it as some retread of the Soviet era.
That’s not accurate though. There are unfortunate continuities, but they largely predate the Soviets.
Ambassador McFaul is a good example of how badly we, and even our ostensible experts, understand Russia.
He spent some of his college years in St Petersburg, and assumes the people he met are Russia in its totality. That’s like visiting San Francisco and assuming it speaks for the rest of the country. The people of St. Petersburg are Russian, but they are so very different from their cousins in Moscow, and they simply do not see the world the way the vast majority of Russian citizens do. Russia is probably more diverse than we are.
Lemon’s views regarding Russia and Israel have no basis in reality.
My favorite part is that the Jews fled Russia in search of somewhere that felt more like home. Goddamn that’s some top tier insanity.
I think it’s cool that we have our own Putin apologist who’s (probably) not part of their hacking efforts. So exotic!
Thank you Adam
Our foreign policy system doesn’t work anymore. It hasn’t worked since the end of the Cold War. We just don’t understand the outside world, and we make the most dreadful decisions because of that.
Once upon a time we had really smart people, who really understood these countries, making policy. Now, not so much. We have credentialed, but poorly travelled, and poorly educated ideologues in charge. Bolton for example.
Russia is one of our intellectual blind spots. We remember the 90s as an era of progress for Russia, they remember it as a very close shave. When you dig in, there isn’t a lot to substantiate our memory of it. It was a disaster for them, and they’re still recovering from it in some ways. And when we see an authoritarian leader in Moscow, we think, aha, this a Soviet nostalgia trip.
But Russia has always had authoritarian leaders, and when it hasn’t, their system of government starts to fall apart. The regional leaders and petty bureaucrats step in, take that power for themselves, and redouble their thievery.
We are an Anglo culture, that grew out of the Magna Carta, and the concept of a constitutional monarch. And that process took centuries. They have no such experience. They really do resemble a 19th century empire, with their tapestry of peoples, languages, and republics. They’re just different, and to expect them to act and behave the way we do is unrealistic.
They are changing, things are getting better in Russia, but the pace is slow. I don’t think there’s a way around that. The poverty in Russia was what surprised me the most. They don’t have a lot of financial resources, and much of the country is very underdeveloped.
Lastly, people routinely conflate analysis with advocacy. Especially when you say something that conflicts with their perception of the world. I get that.
Patrick Armstrong keep a Russia Blog that worth reading.
He’s former Canadian Intelligence, and he understands the Russians the way they understand themselves.
For some reason, Americans personalise everything. In meetings with US intelligence agencies I was always fascinated how they would reduce every complicated reality to a single individual. But it isn’t Saddam, or Assad, or Qaddafi, or Osama, or Aidid, or Milosevic, or Maduro, or Castro or any of the other villains-of-the-day, it’s a whole country : these people got to the top for good reasons. Removing the boss makes some difference but never all the difference. They go but they never leave a Washington-friendly country behind and Washington does it all over again somewhere else. This peculiar blindness drives Putin Derangement Syndrome and has infected everybody else.
I’m always horrified when some commentators says, let’s just take out the Mullahs in Iran, as if that’s some solution to the fighting in the Middle East.
They never stop to think that the Persians have fundamental security interests, that do not change, no matter who’s running the country. And they completely ignore the cultural divide between the Persians and the Arabs, not to mention the religious one.
Lemon’s views regarding Russia and Israel have no basis in reality.
It’s arguably their most important foreign relationship, given that Russia has the power to complicate their defenses through arms sales in the Middle East. But also because Russia has so much influence with their regional rivals. Good relations with Moscow are a way to constrain the Arabs, and the Persians.
Since 2015, Netanyahu has made six trips to the United States, and nine to Russia.
No, this blog is not worth reading.
Patrick Armstrong is a russophile who is an explicitly anti American, pro Soviet propagandist.
He writes for Sputnik news for God’s sake. The dude is literally owned by the Russians.
And no, he was never a Canadian intelligence operative. That’s a lie.
Stop lying.
That’s because all of the worst enemies of Israel are freaking Russian client states.
If that’s what you mean, then you’re misusing the term ‘human rights’. The idea of human rights is explicitly that you don’t only have those rights your community grants you; that there are rights everyone has regardless of social context.
Yeah! Human rights are the rights some other community thinks you should have.