Putinism As Ideology
Two interesting posts today regarding the development as Putinism as an ideology.
First, Prespectives on the New Russia has a post on the development of a Putin Museum and the establishment of Putin Studies. Money quote:
This ideology seems to be developing into a strange blend of continued capitalist reforms, Eurasianist ideology (Dugin, the Eurasianist thinker is now featured prominently in Kremlin propaganda and espouses similar ideas regarding Russia’s use of landpower and what he calls a “conservative revolution” - one that seemingly preserves traditional Russian institutions while also brings about needed change), anti-Americanism (see Nashi’s frequent attacks on America and on opposition politicians as being American), and good ole fashioned nationalism (this is mainly manifested through spending oil money on the army and “national projects”, though here, there is a difficult struggle going on between those who are more and less willing to flirt with anti-immigration and racism in Russia as another plank in the Putin coalition).
A few months back, I wrote about the commissioning of new Russian history books. La Russophobe has an update regarding the project today. Money quote:
Here’s a few lessons from a textbook called Russian History from 1945—2007:
1. The abolition of directly elected regional governors was a good thing because Russians cannot govern themselves.
2. The re-privatization of Yukos means Russia no longer has oligarchs.
3. Georgia gave up its independence in 2004 with its presidential elections and is now illegitimate.
4. Stalin was an “effective manager,” taking Russia from the plow to the atomic bomb in just a few years. His repressions were necessary to mobilize for war and industrialize Russia so quickly. Same goes for Brezhnev. Krushchev, Yeltsin and Gorbachev on the other hand were bad because they were weak.
Brilliant.
