Repression as Putin has not experienced Russia even for Brezhnev, says Russist Glanc
“Suddenly, Russia does not hear anything about dictatorship, political prisoners, murders. All hears that someone will do a deal with them. Trump Putin calls a smart guy, ”says Tomáš Glanc, who is published in the publishing house Vyšehrad a new book entitled“ Russian soul does not exist ”.
“This is one of the reasons why Donald Trump's win was spoken of a certain triumph for the Kremlin administration. It is still a rhetorical turn, but very radical, ”adds the Russianist.
Fabulation with numbers and relativization of facts
According to him, Putin's administration sees in Trump the chance of a new kind of diplomacy that does not directly respect the values of Western civilization, but focuses on pragmatic agreements. “Trump's popularity in the US is that it is never clear what the bonmot will sound tomorrow. This is attractive to his supporters. ”
In fact, Trump behaves like the Russian authorities. According to Glanka, there are many false and misinformations in his speeches. “Used the numbers pulled out of the sleeve. For example, he said he appreciated the Soviet World War II, which he quantified at 60 million. This is a false figure. ”
Similarly, IO is fabling with US investments in Ukraine or on the election preferences of Volodymyra Zelenka. Negotiations on a possible level between Russia and the West may at the moment appear to be a promising way to end the conflict, but Glanc draws attention to the Russian strategy of manipulation.
“There is nothing to rely on. In 2022, Russia assured the world that it was not going to attack Ukraine. Similarly, in 2014, it claimed that there was no Russian army in the Crimea, ”recalls the explicit lies and the Kremlin manipulation.
What keeps Putin's regime in power?
Previously, the Soviet Union held together the ideology of communism, but what, according to the Russianist, keeps Putin's power today? “It is a hybrid of national conservatism, the Orthodox Church, geopolitical visions and modern technologies. Putin's regime is not outdated – on the contrary. It has top hackers and a well -managed disinformation strategy. ”
According to him, the opposition in Russia does not actually exist. “Who has relevance is intimidated, forced to emigrate, or physically destroyed. Today, the number of political prisoners surpasses the figures from the era Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. ”
The question is whether Putin's regime is sustainable for a long time. “History shows that brutal regimes can fall quickly, but also survive long decades. Look at North Korea where totalitarianism lasts 75 years. ”
According to Glanca, Russia may change, but there is no reason for great optimism yet. This is what Glanc deals with in a new book, where it also solves the process of developing a Russian society since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Tomáš Glanc knows the Russian environment intimately, in addition to working as a translator and led the Institute of Slavic and East European Studies at Charles University for several years, and in 2005–2007 he led the Czech Center in Moscow.
“In democratic societies, a political change in the storyline with free elections. They haven't been in Russia for 25 years. What we imagine as some public resistance is technically excluded in Russia in the current situation. The rate of repression is absolutely unprecedented on European scales. Tens of thousands of people were exposed to persecution that we do not know in democratic Europe, ”concludes Glanc.
