Russia - where go thee?

"National mourning during the run-up to the presidents inauguration - cynical disrespect to millions of voters", stated Volodin" - in regard of the tragic fire event in Kemerovo

Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin is a Russian politician who is the 10th and current Chairman of the State Duma since 5 October 2016. He is a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I heard that this mind-boggling message was later removed by its carrier, the state-owned TASS.

This unbelievable declaration after the Kemerovo disaster, besides showing the level of adoration of the de facto Russian autocrat for life, signifies the new era in Russian internal and international politics. It didn't happen yesterday, of course, it took some time, but the boiled frog method eventually succeeded. The country that, in the beginning of the nineties, had a chance to develop into a full-fledged democracy, was returned, slowly but surely and without undue violence, into its traditional slavish worship of the Strong Man. From now on anything he will do, no matter how criminal or stupid, no matter whether it is done in own society or without, will be accepted and hailed as a given.

The tone of the external discourse, as set by the ruler, has also changed, and became quite ominous. I would say that since Stalin's times, the language of the Russian foreign ministry communiques was never that crude and militant. Not to mention full of lies (that was never a showstopper for the ministry mentioned).

The British authorities have demonstrated their inability to ensure the safety of Russian citizens more than once. The glaring examples include the poisoning of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, the death of businessmen Badri Patarkatsishvili and Alexander Perepelichny under unclear circumstances, the mysterious “suicide” of Boris Berezovsky and the strangling of Berezovsky’s business partner Nikolai Glushkov, and lastly, the recent attempt on the lives and health of Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

In the latter case, London acted contrary to all the norms of international law, ethics and even common sense. London has accused Russia of poisoning Russian citizens without providing any evidence or the complete picture of the crime. At the same time, it has provided the alleged name of the toxic agent, which has never been used in Russia, and has launched a large-scale political and media campaign against Russia. It has initiated the campaign to expel Russian diplomats from a number of countries and representative offices at international organisations and has announced a package of other sanctions. Meanwhile, it has completely disregarded our legitimate requests to share the samples of the alleged toxic agent.

There is more in this text, but the quote should be enough.

The war with Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Syrian adventures, the recent bragging session by Putin about the Russian military might - all this doesn't bode well for anyone with a bit of common sense. Whoever doesn't see that this is Putin's way to deflect the attention of the average Russian from the woes of the stagnating economy and the effects the Western sanctions are having on the daily life, could do worse than read this article from Pravda.

A word of caution: the person, quoted at the end of the article, one Sergei Gorodnikov,

is an unusual character. Described by Wiki as a "Russian scientist, writer, playwright, political economist, journalist, publicist, philosopher, politician", he is an ultra-nationalist, as reactionary as they come. During the Soviet years he was too much of a blackshirt to be supported by the ruling powers, but these days, with proliferation of ultra-patriotic filth, he's harnessed the wave. Gorodnikov was leading an extremist nationalist organization Русские ("Russians"), which appeared to be too much even for the sympathetic Russian administration and got dissolved in 2015 by a court order. Currently Mr Gorodnikov bills himself as a director of an entity called Global Policy Development Center (probably having about one employee/CEO/CFO).

His political stance is not quite clear, since he defines himself sometimes as "national socialist" and sometimes as "national democrat". But otherwise, his goals are defined very well in this article.

Director of the Global Policy Development Center, Sergei Gorodnikov, told Pravda.Ru that the Russians are absolutely uncompetitive in the world, "primarily because we have the universal Christian morality, and the West obeys concepts of national interests and corporate ethics. They see the rest of the world beyond the notion of ethics and morality," the political scientist noted in an interview with Pravda.Ru.

According to him, "the countries of the West that stand on the positions of double morality are much more powerful economically and financially. They will wipe Russia out with its weak economy that accounts to only 1.7% percent of GDP of the world economy. They will squash Russia like a fly, we have one or two decades left maximum."

The West, Sergei Gorodnikov continued, has been preparing its public opinion for a consolidated struggle against Russia on the scenario that they had used against Saddam Hussein. As soon as they all consolidate, they will launch an offensive on Putin's regime," the expert told Pravda.Ru.

According to the political scientist, Russia's salvation lies in her return to totalitarianism. "Party is a system-forming core that rules the country for generations. This is an instrument of strategic management. We've had the communist regime that would give the country a strategy for three generations,"

You could easily see where the learned national socialist is right: Russian economy isn't competitive and accounts for a very thin slice of the world economy indeed. The picture of the bloodthirsty West that is preparing to wipe Russia out, though, fits like a glove the current Kremlin view of the political map.

You might ignore the (indeed) odious "analyst", but ignoring the media outfit that publishes revelations like this, Pravda.ru, is a perilous decision at the best of times. Because Pravda.ru is not a mouthpiece of the weakened to the point of impotence communist party. It is toeing the Kremlin line quite devoutly, and its writers know very well the direction of the wind blowing from Kremlin.

Not to mention that the prophecy about returning to totalitarianism is rather a thing of the past. Everything points to it being a reality today.

Too bad.