Opinion – In 2017, I wrote a short because the Foreign Policy asked if Putin was a product of his KGB and personal circumstances, or if he could be better described as acting in accordance with the rich historical and cultural traditions of the Sa. Russian emperor and the bosses of the Soviet Party or not. I have explained before.
Since that time, however, Putin has justified his actions – including the invasion of Ukraine – in increasingly nationalistic and historical terms. He inculcated myths and laments in Russia’s history, quoted Russian chauvinist philosophers, and even declared that Ukraine did not exist, except as part of the Soviet Union. a greater historical Russia.
Of course, he also continued the pattern of using KGB tricks in political and information warfare. Before the war, Putin’s Kremlin was engaged in a wide range of disinformation, subversion, propaganda, support for violent groups, incitement, cyber theft, provocation, deception, conspiracy and even even assassination. His aim was to intimidate Western leaders in the hope that they would not find the will to resist his invasion. As the war progressed, Russia increasingly used lies and deception to deny its apparent war crimes.
While it took too long for the West to understand and react to Russian disinformation after the 2016 US presidential election, we’ve grown accustomed to the Kremlin’s lies. However, despite their uselessness and trustworthiness, too many people fall prey to deception. According to a recent Levada Center poll, Putin’s popularity increased from 71% to 83% after the war started. Likewise, Americans on the farthest right and left sadly seem gullible in accepting conspiracies that bolster their views.
However, as the war continued, the shameless act of lying received less attention than the daily shooting of the Russian Army. Although the decision to invade an innocent country was made by Vladimir Putin alone, the Russian Army’s brutal rape, torture, looting and brutality in Ukraine has prompted commentators to reconsider the operation. military of Russia for decades and look for similarities. And there are many.
Credible accusations of war crimes by Russia and the Soviet Union can be easily seen in Syria, Chechnya, Georgia, Afghanistan, Finland, Poland and the Baltic states, as well as against many countries of the Soviet Union. Soviet Union and during the Second World War. Recently thing in New York Times described the deep historical roots of Russian atrocities.
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In a recent discussion with New Yorkers editor David Remnick, historian Stephen Kotkin of Princeton put the recent invasion in historical context. According to Kotkin, “What we have today in Russia is not something surprising. It is not a deviation from a historical pattern. Before NATO existed – in the 19th century – Russia looked like this: it had an autocrat. It had repression. It has militarism. It had the suspicion of foreigners and Westerners. This is the Russia as we know it, and it is not a Russia that arrived yesterday or in the nineties and nineties. It is not a response to the actions of the West. There are internal processes in Russia that explain where we are today.”
And what are those 19?order parallel century? To the learners of Russia, 19order Astolphe de Custine, a French nobleman and writer of the Marquis century, is one of the most famous chroniclers of Russian political culture. A travel writer in the style of Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote Democracy in Americade Custine traveled to Russia in 1839, and wrote his travel book Tsar’s Empire. De Custine visited Russia in the hope of finding documents to support his criticisms of the representative French government, but instead became a supporter of the constitutional government and a spoke out against Russia’s autocratic regime. He identified a number as 19order The century-old features of Tsarism can equally describe Vladimir Putin’s Russia, including domestic repression, institutional incompetence, and a culture of lies.
Before the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had stepped up repression at home, poisoning his opponents and jailing anyone who criticized the government. In 1839, de Custine described tsarist Russia as a prison in which the emperor held the keys. As he observed, “under autocracy, all laws are calculated to support oppression; … Any careless word is tantamount to high treason [and] The only criminal is the unpunished man. De Custine concludes that, “other countries have supported oppression, the Russian people love it: it still loves it.” In Russia, “absolutism is permanent.”
While Putin’s use of lies can be attributed to his KGB background, there are also many historical and cultural antecedents. In his book, de Custine claimed that the tsarist court displayed a “skill in lying, a natural tendency to be deceived, which is resurgent”. He added that lying seems to be part of a larger cultural instinct to not only hide the truth but lead people astray. “The Russian autocracy not only values ideas and feelings but also denies the truth; It will fight against the evidence, and win the fight! ” writes de Custine, who further notes that in Russia, “to lie is still to fulfill the role of a good citizen; Telling the truth, even on seemingly inconsequential matters, is conspiracy. ” And as we saw in 21st century, lying instinctively costs politics. As de Custine outlines, “by constantly trying to hide the truth from the eyes of others, man eventually becomes unable to perceive it himself”.
The recent invasion of Ukraine also shows a staggering level of administrative incompetence. It seems that the Russian Army is facing many problems, including poor planning, poor intelligence, and the inability of middle and junior officers to make decisions without the approval of their superiors. .
In Putin’s Russia, loyalty to the Kremlin is valued far more than professionalism. Similar to Stalin in the lead up to World War II, Putin’s intelligence chiefs reinforce his prejudices rather than challenge them. This behavior was also pervasive in 19 .order Russia’s court of the century encountered by de Custine.
According to his chronicles, the tsarist court was completely devoid of independent thought for fear of offending the tsar. According to de Custine, “a profound flatter in Petersburg is like a sublime orator in Paris.” He continued, “a Russian hides everything,” and that “a word of truth dropped in Russia is a spark that can fall into a gunpowder barrel.” de Custine also notes a familiar similarity that Russians have shared over the centuries. Here, he said, “people’s greatest pleasure is getting drunk; in other words, absent-mindedness… I don’t believe suicide is common there: people are too distressed to commit suicide.”
Like the tsars before him, Putin has survived by willingly using force at home and abroad, and by maintaining an image of power. Over the past two decades, many observers have used the same phrase to describe Putin’s actions on the international stage – Putin plays well with a weak hand. His bullying, threats, and lies protected him from those who might threaten his power.
However, like Tsar Nicholas during World War I, with his invasion of Ukraine, Putin foolishly flipped all his cards and displayed a weak hand, seemingly breaking the magic of invincibility. his defeat. In doing so, he allowed his enemies to better gauge their own strength and position. While it is unclear whether Putin seriously jeopardizes his control at home, he is still undermining himself and Russia, and can no longer lie that he is playing a game. winning post.
As de Custine described 19order century Russia but it can also be said of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, “a government that lives on mystery, and whose strength lies in disagreement, fear of everything.”
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