Preparing Russia for permanent war

[Celerity]

Behind the Kremlin façade of a grateful people devoted to their leader lie despair, paranoia, intolerance, rage and violence.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/preparing-russia-for-permanent-war

Father of the nation: one of the official photos of Putin distributed by the Russian presidential press office

In the late 18th century, Catherine the Great planned a tour of Crimea, which her court favorite, Count Grigory Potemkin, had conquered a few years earlier. But while Potemkin had managed to seize the agriculturally rich peninsula from the Ottoman empire, he had failed to achieve the promised colonisation. To save face, Potemkin ordered the construction of a row of painted pasteboard façades beside the river along which the empress would travel, and brought in cheerful villagers and herds of healthy livestock to complete the illusion. There was no prosperity, but it sure looked like there was. Versions of ‘Potemkin villages’ have been a staple of Russian history ever since. During Soviet times, the image that communism improved life for all obscured systemic violence and repression. Today, the Kremlin works tirelessly to create the impression that Russia is a beacon of stability and strength, and that a grateful people is fervently devoted to their leader, Vladimir Putin. But, behind the façade, one finds disillusion, despair, fear and rage.

Hard to lie completely

You see this truth in contemporary Russian films and television, because popular culture finds it hard to lie completely about the state of politics. In the Russian crime drama The Boy’s World: Blood on the Asphalt, violent and chaotic politics translate into violent and chaotic streets. When leaders insist that enemies lurk everywhere and that the best defence is to strike first, paranoia, intolerance and aggression grow. It should be no surprise, then, that as Putin wages war on Ukraine, Russian children bully their classmates, teenagers film themselves attacking local residents and adults get into public brawls. Today’s Russia is nothing like the citadel of stability and satisfaction nor the bastion of prosperity that the Kremlin claims it to be. Though its gross domestic product grew by more than 3 per cent in 2023, despite western sanctions, this hardly reflects genuine, let alone sustainable, economic dynamism.

Instead, it reflects the fact that the state has poured massive resources into the military-industrial complex. But those resources had to be reallocated from somewhere and a series of catastrophes—including infrastructure disasters, energy-supply breakdowns and fires at factories and warehouses—offer clues as to where. Moreover, the Ukraine war triggered a mass exodus of Russians, including many with valuable skills, such that 85 per cent of businesses are reporting a shortage of qualified manpower. Some estimate that, by 2030, Russia will be short of up to four million capable workers, which would shave about two percentage points from GDP growth.

Cult of the personality

As in any dictatorship, the more problems Putin’s regime has the louder the propaganda. This explains why last November—on National Unity Day—a massive ‘forum and exhibition’ simply called ‘Russia’ opened in Moscow. The six-month event, timed to end after the presidential election in March, is intended to be a ‘large-scale projection of the country’, with 131 expositions showcasing Russia’s ‘main achievements’, from ‘breakthrough discoveries’ to ‘victories’ in ‘industry, culture and sports’. The Russia the exhibition presents might be as glorious as Putin claims, but as with Potemkin’s villages it is a blatant attempt to obscure a dark truth with appealing lies. Moreover, it is being used to bolster Putin’s cult of the personality. In this sense, the choice of venue for the event could not be more appropriate: the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh) was built at the height of Joseph Stalin’s purges.

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[Duncanpup]

1. Excellent article