Replies

In addition to pointing out that Pavlova (in her blog) makes sure people don’t try to compare Trump’s “MAGA” agenda to Putin’s fundamentalism,

I want to stress that what soulless-ness there is in the modern West — we can attribute MUCH to the infiltration and spreading of Soviet and Soviet-sympathizing ideologies that continue to permeate the leftist and secular movements of today...Continuing to plague our societal institutions now. Especially academia.

No matter how many anti-gay laws Russia uses to distract from the reality, Putin has overseen the entrenchment of nostalgia for the Soviet Union and the worst excesses of Tsarist empire as well.

A lot of Russia’s ideological problems stem form its development: the country always ended up adopting the worst of Europe (while America adopted the best and did away with the worst.) —whether it’s models of aristocratic tyranny, Marxism — they got their cues from the West indeed.

And the Russian Orthodox Church, while filled with much promise and treasures of the Spirit, has not reformed at crucial junctures in history and often ends up as a “handmaiden” of a brutal, corrupt State.

I see the infiltration and demoralizing of Western society as less a Soviet influence and more a triumph of Gramscian Marxism in the halls of many of our cultural centers. This Marxism doesn’t necessarily fit Soviet (Russian) categories, which reflect fundamentals very different from those of America. IOW, I don’t see Putinism as the main corrupting force within our shores.

Putin has overseen the entrenchment of nostalgia for the Soviet Union and the worst excesses of Tsarist empire as well.

I can't speak to the nostalgia piece, having never visited Russia. With the standard of living so much improved over the old USSR days, I find it hard to believe that anyone would consider them better, but I suppose it's possible.

I would have to disagree with the "worst excesses" charge though. Show me where Putin has opened up the gulags, starved millions of peasants with unrealistic grain quotas, or shot hundreds of imaginary "enemies of the state" and I'll accept it. Otherwise, I would view that as mere hyperbole.

Is he autocratic? Yes. Is he wily and power-hungry? Yes. Is he Stalin or a Czar? No.