Russia is the world’s largest country, measured in square kilometers. Over a tenth of inhabited landmasses on earth are part of the Russian state. 238 different languages and dialects are spoken here, according to the authorities. Russia also has more nuclear warheads than any other country. Moreover, a political leadership that has threatened to use all means if the country’s existence is threatened. When that happens, the political leadership, i.e. President Putin, decides. Respect He demands that Russia be respected. It is one of his six principles in the recipe for “a stable world”. Number two is to respect diversity, and recognize that it is not acceptable to tell other states how to live, the Russian president stated last October. He has also said outright that “American politicians must learn to respect others”. With God and soldiers for Russia The alliance between the church and the defense gives Putin the moral and value-based grounding he needs. The fight is about something much bigger than Ukrainian territory. Patriarch Kirill and Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu open the Cathedral of the Armed Forces in the Patriot Park outside Moscow, 14 June 2020. The church is mainly military green both externally and internally. Photo: AFP – The most important task for Russia now is to emerge victorious from the battle that the forces of evil have unleashed against us, said the head of the Russian Church, Patriarch Kirill last autumn. He has also said that all Russian soldiers who die in the war in Ukraine will have their sins forgiven. When I worked here in the 1990s, President Boris Yeltsin announced a competition to find a national idea that could replace communism. The competition ended without a result. President Vladimir Putin answers submitted questions from the people and from people in the hall on live television December 14, 2023. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AFP Putin and his closest found the answer in the past. The church, a strong state and the military in close association are both practically and ideologically the pillars of the national identity that is now marketed on all platforms. – We are not, like some countries, looking for a “national idea”. We found it in the history of our people, the patriarch said last March. Being a respected great power is also important to the people. It is simply part of the national identity. A compensation for the people The superpower feeling acts as a compensation for a poor population that is completely dependent on the state, claims sociologist Lev Gudkov. For several decades he headed the independent polling institute Levada. Now he writes critical analyzes based on the knowledge he has gathered about public opinion here. Lev Gudkov, senior analyst at the opinion polling institute Levada. Photo: Jurij Linkevitch / news – Pride in the country is inseparable from the badly repressed shame and the nagging feeling of lagging behind developed countries, i.e. the West, says Gudkov. Levada has been declared a “foreign agent” by the authorities. Around eight out of ten Russians, in the three decades since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, have maintained that Russia must return to and defend its role as a great power. Great power status protects I went out into the winter cold to hear from the people themselves what they think. In a giant exhibition park in the north of Moscow, there is now an exhibition called “Russia”. The regions each have their own stand, including the occupied Ukrainian counties. In the “VDNKH” exhibition park, the main point is to showcase everything the Soviet Union and since Russia has achieved in terms of technological development. The ice sculpture shows a Russian airliner. Photo: Gro Holm / news Everyone I asked believes that Russia is a great power. But when I wanted to know what it means to them, several people struggled to answer. Not Tatjana. – That means you feel protected, you don’t have to worry about the future. The Great Power protects you, she thought. – I am very proud to have been born here and not somewhere else, said Dania, who is from southern Russia. The stand for the Russian-occupied Ukrainian county of Donetsk is about the reconstruction of areas destroyed by the war. Russia is investing large sums, particularly in Mariupol. Photo: Gro Holm / news I also asked if there is any difference between being an empire and being a great power. Most answered that Russia is not an empire. That word sounds negative to many, as if they are part of a state that wants to subjugate other peoples. Russia as an Empire President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speak to African leaders as if they have a shared history of fighting Western colonialism. But Russian soldiers are now fighting to conquer a neighboring country, and the Tsarist Empire was created by arms and force. That aspect of Russian empire-building receives little attention. Few Russians understand what I mean when I talk about the 101-year war against the Circassians, between 1763 and 1864. The Circassians are mainly Muslims, and at the time were a mountain people who also controlled parts of the Black Sea coast, including the city of Sochi. The Tsar’s soldiers killed on foot, both people and livestock. According to the Russian Empire itself, 400,000 Circassians were killed and half a million forced to flee to Turkey. Only 80,000 remained. The ecclesiastics themselves claim that far more were killed and that it was a genocide. Forgotten mass murders But traces of this mass murder are not to be found in Russians’ awareness of their own history and greatness. There is an active Circassian exile community which claims that the Russian Empire committed genocide against the Circassians. The Georgian National Assembly has decided that it was a genocide. Otherwise, few countries in the world have bothered with the fate of this Caucasian people. Russia has never had a critical public that has discussed the human costs of subjugating tens of thousands of non-Russian minorities by force. Perhaps not so surprising, as there has been hardly any reckoning with the Stalin-era mass slaughter of actual and imagined political opponents. Many of them were ethnic Russians. Fresh imperialism Besides the occupation of Ukrainian territory, Russia has recently supplied itself with several other former Soviet republics. Because they can, because their army is the strongest. Russian soldiers practice with landing craft, armored vehicles and helicopters near the Abkhazian Black Sea town of Gudauta. 13 August 2018. Photo: Reuters From Georgia they have taken Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast and South Ossetia northwest of the capital Tbilisi. From Moldova they have taken Transdniestria, on the border with Ukraine. And when I say “taken”, it’s because the areas have been occupied by Russian forces for many years.
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President Vladimir Putin believes Russia is a great power – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
