Telegraph: "Darkness is Falling in Vladimir Putin's Russia"
Filed under: Russia
Back in April of 2006, I started a little blog called La Russophobe whose purpose was to warn the world that darkness was falling in Russia, a neo-Soviet state was rising and a new cold war was in the offing. Then, some called me a chicken-little crackpot. Today, I'm conventional wisdom, and this is no better illustrated than in a brilliant long piece in today's Sunday Telegraph by the newspaper's executive editor Con Coughlin. Entitled "Darkness is Falling in Vladimir Putin's Russia," it systematically lays out the horror of what we are witnessing on a daily basis in Russia, confirming that my predictions were literally dead right. It's required reading for those who wish to understand today's Russia. The sub-headline says it all: "Soaring oil prices have made the country a power again - but its ruler's grip on politics, the media and economy has sinister implications for democracy."
Ironically, even Coughlin doesn't go far enough. He states: "The notion that Russia under Putin could return to the worst excesses of Comrade Stalin is, of course, far-fetched." What he's forgotten is that the reality he documents seemed very "far-fetched" indeed just a few years ago. We all must confront the demons of our psychological defense mechanisms, which make it very hard for us to accept the stark terror of certain facts. If things are this bad now, when Putin has an iron grip on power and oil prices are high, what might happen in Russia when that's no longer the case? It's a theme that runs through Russian history: After all, how many thought the Bolsheviks could take power from the Tsar? How many saw the full horror of Stalin before it was too late? How many predicted the collapse of the USSR, with such a pathetic whimper? To put it simply, those who believe a new Stalin can't appear in Russia are kidding themselves, and scholar Paul Goble's recent analysis of the resurrection of the KGB's infamous Fifth Directorate makes that emphatically clear.
The Telegraph's caption for the picture above reads: "Moscow must rate as the world capital for conspicuous consumption -- luxury cars clog the streets while homeless people scavenge for food." It's not hard to understand why Russia's level of consumption is so conspicuous. First, just as in the Soviet and Tsarist times, the tiny elite with money knows they won't be able to keep it for long, so why not enjoy it while you can? Second, now as then, this tiny group simply couldn't care less about the vast majority of their countrymen, who continue to suffer the torture of poverty, short lifespans, alcoholic degradation and the squalor of pollution, disease and the total lack of hope for a different future. In other words, those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.
It's very comforting to see the world starting to catch up with me, I wasn't so sure it was ever going to happen. It's a pity we couldn't have acted a bit sooner, by failing to do so we've made our job a bit harder. But I'm confident that, if we pull together, we can handle the Evil Empire II just like we did the first one.
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