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talkpolitics"I'm the truest and rightest nationalist", Vladimir Putin told the audience during a recent forum in Russia. He also claimed 146 million people support his view. Of course, that's hardly a surprise to anyone.
It all started when the host reminded the president about a notion he had expressed back in 2014 about the so called "Russian world". That concept was one of the pillars of Putinite Russia, but oddly, it has gradually disappeared from the vocabulary of the Russian elites in recent years. Putin's response re-confirmed what we already knew: the topic of Russian nationalism is no longer of interest to him - what's more, it apparently irritates him at this point.
"Our national identity is our culture, our history. There are 160 ethnicities in the Russian Federation", he said. Then he went on a convoluted rant about "right" and "wrong" nationalism. You see, Russia is a multinational country, and if we want it to stay that way, to get stronger and be stable, the role of the Russian ethnos as the main factor should be recognized and preserved. Evidently, we're not talking of the a Russian World at this point - rather, all peoples in Russia are "equal", although Russians are "more equal" than the rest (a well-known concept from Soviet times). But still, he cautioned against shoving this primary role of the Russians into everyone's face - they're themselves a multiethnic people, and that's part of their identity. Sounds so tolerant and inclusive, right?
Despite the obvious rhetorical pandering to his fellow Russians, Putin essentially denied the largest ethnos in the Russian Federation the right of any other identity that deviates from full devotion to the multinational Russian state in its current 2018 form. Being a Russian, according to Putin, means being loyal to this particular country, i.e. practically personal allegiance to him. Any other view on the subject is to be rejected as "caveman nationalism", period. This way the trap he's been trying to lure the Russian nationalists since 2014 is about to snap. Back then, he vaguely promised them some undefined sort of Russian World, and now he's forcing them to swear allegiance ot him about everything they vehemently opposed - loyalty to multinationalism, and tolerance to his personal interpretation of these categories. Putin is no longer offering a Russian World, and by the way no one seems to be opposed to this any more at this point. It was those Russian nationalists that handed over the Soviet legacy to the former KGB agent, after all.
Of course, it's pointless to try to catch Putin in the act of showing ideological inconsistency, since the only thing that truly matters to him is to hold on to power and keep his regime alive. "The true, the correct, the most efficient nationalist is me", he said in conclusion to his rant. In other words, true nationalism means being Putin or like Putin, no matter if you're a Russian or Tatar or any other. Anything beyond that is "caveman", primitive, and silly, and designed to undermine the sacred state. This convoluted concept of true nationalism that he's proposing sounded so unexpected that the discussion host was compelled to ask Putin if other people supported his worldview. To which he responded by shocking everybody with his confidence: "Yes! 146 million people!"
It seems this statement contains the whole idea of all of Putin's ideological constructs. Right now, when his approval ratings are quite evidently falling down, he urgently needs some new concept to legitimize him, one that by design would be impossible to be tested through elections or polls. As per the Russian constitution, the president, despite all his huge prerogatives, is just a function of the system, not a particular person. It doesn't mention who the president is by name, right? But if he can claim to be the leader of 146 million people who support his worldview, well then, he's a specific person that is supposed to be leading them all - and who else but Vladimir Putin himself!
That's precisely why, while Putin's ratings may be plummeting, his chosen candidates are still not losing elections. But of coruse the leader of the runited nation that doesn't fear anyone and anything, by definition cannot be dependant on some electoral procedures or opinion polls, that would be ridiculous. What do some election and poll results matter when it's actually a mater of "just dying" or "going to Heaven", like he recently claimed in relation to a potential total mutual nuclear destruction?
The worst thing we could do now is to take Putin's words at face value and accept the existence of this unconfirmed 146 million support for his worldview as axiomatic, no questions asked. Unfortunately, the claims of the official Putinite propaganda about some "86% support" for him that has been circling the world for some time now, is being accepted by too many with astounding seriousness. In the meantime, these invented 146 million Putin supporters quite neatly match those other anecdotal 146% voters who were said to have voted for his United Russia party.
Look, the truth is, there's neither a Russian World of any sorts, nor a Putin type of nationalism, and definitely no 146 million people supporting his worldview, who are prepared to go to Heaven for him. All that remains is Putin's moral bankruptcy, his faltering popularity, and his attempt to conceal all that with a tired rhetoric consisting of mutually contradictory slogans, old worn-out pseudo-nationalism demagoguery, and demonstrative but entirely hollow self-confidence.
It all started when the host reminded the president about a notion he had expressed back in 2014 about the so called "Russian world". That concept was one of the pillars of Putinite Russia, but oddly, it has gradually disappeared from the vocabulary of the Russian elites in recent years. Putin's response re-confirmed what we already knew: the topic of Russian nationalism is no longer of interest to him - what's more, it apparently irritates him at this point.
"Our national identity is our culture, our history. There are 160 ethnicities in the Russian Federation", he said. Then he went on a convoluted rant about "right" and "wrong" nationalism. You see, Russia is a multinational country, and if we want it to stay that way, to get stronger and be stable, the role of the Russian ethnos as the main factor should be recognized and preserved. Evidently, we're not talking of the a Russian World at this point - rather, all peoples in Russia are "equal", although Russians are "more equal" than the rest (a well-known concept from Soviet times). But still, he cautioned against shoving this primary role of the Russians into everyone's face - they're themselves a multiethnic people, and that's part of their identity. Sounds so tolerant and inclusive, right?
Despite the obvious rhetorical pandering to his fellow Russians, Putin essentially denied the largest ethnos in the Russian Federation the right of any other identity that deviates from full devotion to the multinational Russian state in its current 2018 form. Being a Russian, according to Putin, means being loyal to this particular country, i.e. practically personal allegiance to him. Any other view on the subject is to be rejected as "caveman nationalism", period. This way the trap he's been trying to lure the Russian nationalists since 2014 is about to snap. Back then, he vaguely promised them some undefined sort of Russian World, and now he's forcing them to swear allegiance ot him about everything they vehemently opposed - loyalty to multinationalism, and tolerance to his personal interpretation of these categories. Putin is no longer offering a Russian World, and by the way no one seems to be opposed to this any more at this point. It was those Russian nationalists that handed over the Soviet legacy to the former KGB agent, after all.
Of course, it's pointless to try to catch Putin in the act of showing ideological inconsistency, since the only thing that truly matters to him is to hold on to power and keep his regime alive. "The true, the correct, the most efficient nationalist is me", he said in conclusion to his rant. In other words, true nationalism means being Putin or like Putin, no matter if you're a Russian or Tatar or any other. Anything beyond that is "caveman", primitive, and silly, and designed to undermine the sacred state. This convoluted concept of true nationalism that he's proposing sounded so unexpected that the discussion host was compelled to ask Putin if other people supported his worldview. To which he responded by shocking everybody with his confidence: "Yes! 146 million people!"
It seems this statement contains the whole idea of all of Putin's ideological constructs. Right now, when his approval ratings are quite evidently falling down, he urgently needs some new concept to legitimize him, one that by design would be impossible to be tested through elections or polls. As per the Russian constitution, the president, despite all his huge prerogatives, is just a function of the system, not a particular person. It doesn't mention who the president is by name, right? But if he can claim to be the leader of 146 million people who support his worldview, well then, he's a specific person that is supposed to be leading them all - and who else but Vladimir Putin himself!
That's precisely why, while Putin's ratings may be plummeting, his chosen candidates are still not losing elections. But of coruse the leader of the runited nation that doesn't fear anyone and anything, by definition cannot be dependant on some electoral procedures or opinion polls, that would be ridiculous. What do some election and poll results matter when it's actually a mater of "just dying" or "going to Heaven", like he recently claimed in relation to a potential total mutual nuclear destruction?
The worst thing we could do now is to take Putin's words at face value and accept the existence of this unconfirmed 146 million support for his worldview as axiomatic, no questions asked. Unfortunately, the claims of the official Putinite propaganda about some "86% support" for him that has been circling the world for some time now, is being accepted by too many with astounding seriousness. In the meantime, these invented 146 million Putin supporters quite neatly match those other anecdotal 146% voters who were said to have voted for his United Russia party.
Look, the truth is, there's neither a Russian World of any sorts, nor a Putin type of nationalism, and definitely no 146 million people supporting his worldview, who are prepared to go to Heaven for him. All that remains is Putin's moral bankruptcy, his faltering popularity, and his attempt to conceal all that with a tired rhetoric consisting of mutually contradictory slogans, old worn-out pseudo-nationalism demagoguery, and demonstrative but entirely hollow self-confidence.
(no subject)
Date: 1/11/18 07:59 (UTC)