Posted on 02/07/2018 12:41:13 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
Then great. Enjoy your Putin and your fake elections. From my vantage point, unless of course you are a pampered expat — mindsets like yours are what is holding Russia back.
Just to be clear, I am not a Russian citizen, so I don't get to vote anyway. No one is claiming that Putin doesn't play games. I'm just giving my perspective: I've seen a *tremendous* increase in quality of life of the last eight or nine years that I've been observing. Every government organ that I've watched Putin "reform" (reorg of MVD and FMS is a great example) works much better now. To add to that, most officials, even in small cities, are terrified to take bribes, when 9 years ago they openly demanded them.
I don’t mean to sound so snarky. I love Russia, Russians, maybe too much.
But there is so much poison from the past corroding through the fabric of society still. And the psyche of the country is still troubled and it was only compounded by Putin with all his Soviet-throwback nationalism nonsense...The culture overall has bee. devoid of meaningful self-reflection and criticim over the troubled aspects of their past.
“” “” This is pretty stupid. Putin throws out some corrupt kleptocrats (which, if you pay attention, has been his M.O. across the board) and somehow it is bad? These Dagitstanis were stealing everything in sight. “” “”
Kiev Rose is somehow disappointed with the fact that corruption exists in Russia to the point of starting a nuclear war over it. On the other hand efforts to clean corruption are seen as just as wrong.
You just can’t make her happy.
The trouble is that is so much of the Russian identity that such moves are what make a leader popular—and thus enable him to stay in office.
Not good for the Russians, of course, but really of their own doing since that sort of ambition and perceived global status is what they crave.
To some degree, I agree with you. Although, one important point to make is that Russian nationalism, sort of like Trump-style American nationalism, is about country and patriotism, rather than really about one particular "natisya" or ethnicity. Billboards/other advertisements for "United Russia" talk about how all citizens are Russians, regardless of their "nation" or ethnicity.
My in-laws are not Russians, but rather Armenians (amusingly, as a third-generation American with Ukranian/Russian blood, I am more Russian than they are!), but one of the most poignant points they make about Putin's rise was the almost overnight crackdown on tolerance for "nationalists" who liked to attack/rob/kill those who weren't "Russian", i.e. them.
On the other hand, the only arguably non-establishment (would-be) candidate for President, Alexei Navalny, comes from the "Russian for Russians" camp, and has been quoted as saying that "the best way to deal with immigrants is with a pistol". This is not the direction I think anyone wants to go. I'll take Putin-style patriotism any day of the week over this kind of BS.
You’re Armenian? You will understand this statement then:
At the moment, the current, sorry state Russian nationalism is like TURKISH nationalism. Hinging on rotten ideologies and a fierce denial of the past in efforts to rewrite their roles in history and gloss over/sugarcoat inconvenient realities. (In Turkey’s case: the Armenian genocide, in Russia’s the crimes and final defeat of the Soviet Union.)
Trump is NOT Putin. What an insult! Trump is way out of Putin’s league in terms of class and honor. And this applies to every American president. Because the US presidency is bigger than any one personality.
Putin can never stand up against the moral weight and dignity of the republic which American leaders represent.
Very few world leaders can hold a candle to the sacred traditions and institutions which bring every American leader to power.
America is not perfect, but what we stand for is golden. Our people are free. And our willingness towards self-reflection and self-criticism are some of the keys to our enduring strength. We confront our history and learn and are ever moving forward through its darkest pages in the spirit of open and transparent debate.
I agree Navalny is no Trump. Far from it.
At the moment, the current, sorry state Russian nationalism is like TURKISH nationalism. Hinging on rotten ideologies and a fierce denial of the past in efforts to rewrite their roles in history and gloss over/sugarcoat inconvenient realities. (In Turkey’s case: the Armenian genocide, in Russia’s the crimes and final defeat of the Soviet Union.)
I'm actually not Armenian myself (my blood is Russian/Ukranian/Polish), but my wife and her family (and by extension, my children) are Armenian. The history of the genocide (and less famous later persecutions, like in Sumgait and Kirovobad) is very near to my heart.
I really don't agree with your comparison of Russia to Turkey...really, its apples and oranges.
No one in modern Russia is denying the crimes of the USSR. Rather, they tend to lament the mistakes made, especially during the collapse, that plunged their country into 20 years of darkness (that was way darker than the previous 20 years of Communism). Let's face it, the Soviet state was driven by the ideology of Communism, and that isn't coming back in Russia, ever. Russia is moving forward, not backward, but digging out of that 80+ year hole created by Communism isn't easy, both from an economic and psychological standpoint.
Turkey, on the other hand, seems to have no trouble rewriting history and looks like they want to return directly to the time of state Islamism (and you would be forgiven if you thought that they seem to want to build a new caliphate). This is a direct regression to an old, failed, toxic ideology. I fail to see the parallel to Russia here.
I know it is not the point you were making, but since you brought up Armenians, it is also worth noting who came to their rescue in Sumgait and Kirovobad (well, in Azerbaijan in general) in the 1980s...the Russians/USSR government. When the **** started to hit the fan in Azerbaijan, the Soviet Army showed up and literally escorted entire cities of Armenians onto RFSFR territory with columns of tanks and trucks. This I know, as my then-2-year-old wife and her parents were part of it.
On this, you couldn't be more correct. I believe strongly in American exceptionalism. Where I think we diverge is that I believe that Putin has the best interests of the Russian state and people at heart, and always has. This, right now, is "good enough" for Russia. I believe that Putin's biggest worry for this final term, is how to best leave Russia on a strong footing, before the next leadership takes over.
Putin is an embarrassment and insult to all that is best in Russian culture and heritage. Once he leaves, Russians will have to dig themselves out of yet another absurdist rabbit hole in order to detox from the collective, psychological derangement that’s ensued in these three precious post-Soviet decades. Are people starving? No, but so many sacred opportunities were missed and went to utter waste.
Hopefully the younger generations will produce actual statesmen and people who believe themselves worthy of such statesmen, not clowns who’ve graduated from the Moscow circus.
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