Dear Navy Patriot,
I get both these publications in PRINT by MAIL.
After my time in Russia, I have a counter narrative to the one this writer writes without discounting everything he says — as he makes plenty of legitimate points.
These points are made all the more legitimate by the sorry state of Western and American affairs, which unfolded at the same time during the post-Reagan years.
I will write further later, but for now, I say:
Putin’s legacy may have been more positive from my view had he left office when he initially did back in 2008. But actually, he never really left. And, the more I understand the transition of power from the 90s, the more I realize how, he took advantage of the chaos to continue the plundering of his people (albeit in a far more subtle way, at first) and enshrine heartbreaking levels of corruption in almost every facet of society from the very get-go.
I absorbed a lot of that resulting Putin-era anguish, and still do as I am in constant contact with Russian expats here in the U.S. - mostly millennials like me, who came of age in the 90s and 00’s and contribute to the new crop of out-migration from Russia of recent years. In 2015 alone, Navy Patriot, almost 300,000 Russians applied for a US Green Card lottery. Yes just for the mere CHANCE to leave. And many include people who are doing relatively well materially in places like Moscow and the like.
All I can say is: for all the “progress” Russia made materially, something much deeper and more sacred remains unrealized as a result of the Putin’s regime and the psyche of the Russian people has been broken, battered, and remains heavily bruised.
A lot of it has to do with suppressed repentance and collective healing over the horrors and atrocities of the country’s recent past.
Under Putin, Russians have lived through the revival of Soviet and Imperial demons that brought the country down in the first place. And Putin (and sadly, even the Orthodox Church) has a lot to do with this revival.
It’s not uncommon, as I did, to see portraits of Stalin side by side with icons of Jesus in the homes of average Russians.
These demons coexist with the external trappings of capitalism like McDonalds and new infrastructure (though the cities outside Moscow and St. P tell a different story infra structurally) open travel, and even the revival of religious practices.
Putin’s Russia is not the Soviet Union, but his regime is a reminder that the State remains an inheritor to the Bolshevik legacy. And until that “cursed line” is broken, Russia will remain under the veil of a dark spiritual spell.
Ahh, now I understand, Putin has failed to make Russians apologize and prostrate themselves to Western Millennials for what Marx and Stalin (a Prussian and a Georgian) did to them.
How dare they.