Russian political psyche: history and modernity

[kaur]

Interview with Russian Security Council head Patrushev. Putin's close friend from Leningrad times and former FSB director. In the original article in Russian words USA and American were used over 50 times.

http://rt.com/politics/196456-russia...rushev-global/

[mirhond]

http://news.mail.ru/video/229498/

A man got prison term for an anecdote. looks like "old good" Soviet tradition returns. An anecdote is defined as hate speech, while it's just an ancient deja moo (but somewhat funny)
The whole situation is still the stuff of a joke, but...

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2614961
Putin defined "antinational thinking" - call for owerthowing an existent regime falls into scale.

[kaur]

mirhond, back to golden era habits?

[kaur]

Beyond Putin? Nationalism and Xenophobia in Russian Public Opinion

Published 11-25-2014

(The Washington Quarterly) The role of nationalism within the Russian public is an under- examined but potentially important aspect of the crisis surrounding Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its continuing involvement in eastern and southern regions of Ukraine. As commentators have sought to comprehend President Vladimir Putin’s motives, many have asserted or assumed that such actions enjoy tremendous Russian public support. Indeed, public opinion polls from Russia indicate that Putin’s popularity soared in the wake of the Crimean annexation and that large majorities have supported the government’s policies in Ukraine, sympathizing with the Kremlin’s negative portrayals of U.S. motives and actions.1 However, it is not clear whether this wave of public support is a fleeting “rally around the flag” phenomenon or the result of an organic, deeper tendency toward nationalism and xenophobia in the Russian public

http://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/beyond-pu...public-opinion

[kaur]

In Ukraine topic I did mention DPR unit called СССР/Soviet Union. The leader explained the name with desire to stability that existed during SU time. Today Russian business daily published 1 poll about nostalgia to SU. 13% want this.

Надежд на Евразийский союз тоже мало: постоянно идут торговые войны с Белоруссией, поэтому все тенденции очень разнонаправленные и «у людей в голове каша», поясняет Бызов: «Те 13%, которые хотят обратно в СССР, — это сложившиеся и выросшие там люди. Сейчас уже выросло несколько поколений, для которых Советский Союз — просто романтический образ, и они считают возврат туда нереальным».

http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/new...dnej-tyazhesti

[kaur]

mirhond's golden age in pictures.

http://visualhistory.livejournal.com/902413.html

[OUTLAW 09]

Seems even Putin has a hard time with history?


Bloomberg News

Putin’s Crimea-as-Jerusalem Myth Baffles Russian Historians

By Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko December 05, 2014

President Vladimir Putin’s elevation of Crimea to the status of Russia’s Holy Land has prompted puzzlement and scorn from historians and commentators.

Crimea for Russians is “like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem” for Muslims and Jews, Putin said, and would be regarded this way “from now on and forever.” Vladimir the Great was baptized in Chersonesus, Crimea, an event in 988 that’s considered to be the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus, a precursor state to Russia and Ukraine, Putin explained in his annual address yesterday to parliament and top officials in Moscow.

“Prince Vladimir was Kievan, not Muscovite, and this probably only underlines the right of Kiev and not Moscow to Crimea,” Andrei Zubov, a Russian historian and political scientist, said in an interview.

Putin’s new Crimea myth added a religious aspect to Russia’s confrontation with the U.S. and the European Union after it annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March. EU and U.S. sanctions have helped to push the Russian economy to the brink of recession as it wrestles with a 39 percent slump in the value of the ruble against the dollar this year and a one-third decline in the oil price. Russia depends on oil and gas revenue for about half of its federal budget.

Historians argue over whether Vladimir was baptized in Vasilev, near Kiev, rather than Chersonesus, said Zubov, who lost his post at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in March after he compared Putin’s takeover of Crimea to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938.

‘Incorrect’ Comparison

From a religious viewpoint, “Kiev is a much more important place for Russian Orthodox pilgrims than Crimea,” said Deacon Andrei Kuraev, a theologian and blogger. It’s “incorrect” to compare Crimea with the Temple Mount, the holiest place on Earth for Jews, he said.