“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin resembles a
villain out of central casting. He has repeatedly revealed himself as cocksure,
patronizing, aggrieved, vindictive, and quick with a retort for Western
critics. But he is hardly the first Russian leader to make demonization of the
West a foundation of Russia’s core identity and its government’s claim to
legitimacy. Moreover, today’s Russia is significantly more ethnically
homogeneous and nationalist than was the old Soviet Union, and Putin has
perfected the art of moistening the eyes of Russian elites assembled in opulent
tsarist settings, plucking the strings of mystical pride in all things Russian
and of ressentiment at all things
Western. They see reason where critics see madness. From the Kremlin’s
perspective, as Washington engages in stupid, hypocritical, and destabilizing
global behavior, Moscow shoulders the burden of serving as a counterweight,
thereby bringing sanity and balance to the international system. Russian lying,
cheating, and hypocrisy thus serve a higher purpose. Cybercrime is patriotism;
rigging elections and demobilizing opposition are sacred duties. Putin’s
machismo posturing, additionally, is undergirded by a view of Russia as a
country of real men opposing a pampered, gutless, and decadent West. Resentment
toward U.S. power resonates far beyond Russia, and with his ramped-up social
conservatism, Putin has expanded a perennial sense of Russian exceptionalism to
include an alternative social model as well.”— Stephen Kotkin,
“The Resistible Rise of Vladimir Putin: Russia’s Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream,” Foreign Affairs, March-April 2015
Let’s not leave out a few other factors in the rise
of Putin's kleptocracy: harassing dissenters; targeted surreptitious assassinations
of prominent critics abroad; and disrupting democratic elections, in Europe and—yes, say
it!—the United States. (In this latter regard, he and President Trump are finding out an uncomfortable truth about each other: neither is to be trusted.)
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