For Putin, the Soviet Union was the Russian Empire of the 20th Century. So, for him, the Soviet Union replaced the Czarist empire of previous centuries. In some ways it makes sense to me when I look at how dangerous the economic interdependencies are worldwide and I understand why he would want to go back to a totalitarian state to have one size fits all once again. In fact, if you look at Russia today the only real difference today from then that much is that Christianity is accepted as the state religion once again. Otherwise, not a whole lot has changed under Putin from the Soviet Union. Or better said Putin has brought Russia back to being "A Christian Soviet Union" even though nothing like this existed quite like this before.
I'm not really sure how Russians and the world in general feels about all this. But, I remember the Soviet Union being a pretty Scary place both for Russians to live and also for the U.S. to try to avoid a nuclear war with from 1945 until 1991.
Putin’s backward gaze
Instead
of looking ahead, President Putin is looking backward longingly at
imperial and Soviet Russia. He’s attempting to energize his country
around the idea of reuniting Russian-speakers in now independent former
Soviet states with Mother Russia. Putin’s Russia is rich in natural
resources,…
Christian Science Monitor
Putin’s backward gaze
By moving on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin looks to the past when he should be envisioning a fresh future for Russia.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board
10 hours ago
Is Vladimir Putin
a genius, a Russian chess master thinking several moves ahead of the
West in the diplomatic and military confrontation playing out in Ukraine?
He
sends a column of trucks toward that country purportedly carrying
humanitarian aid while at the same time sending in convoys of arms for
the Russian-backed rebels fighting just inside the eastern border. And
now he’s suddenly speaking in conciliatory tones, ready to talk with
Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, in an Aug. 26 face-to-face
meeting.
Is he a mastermind brilliantly pushing for advantage in every facet of the Ukraine problem?Recommended: Vladimir Putin 101: A quiz about Russia's president
A
more useful view might be that of a desperate Russian leader trying to
make his country relevant in a world that is passing it by.
When a country loses its sense of direction and purpose, a foreign adventure can serve as a handy unifying force.
Instead of looking ahead, President Putin is looking backward longingly at imperial and Soviet Russia.
He’s attempting to energize his country around the idea of reuniting
Russian-speakers in now independent former Soviet states with Mother
Russia.Putin’s Russia is rich in natural resources, including oil and gas. But that isn’t the foundation of a diversified, 21st-century economy. Russia’s population is stagnant. Yes, its oligarchs have become super-rich, but not through innovation: According to one source, Russia ranks behind the US state of Alabama in the number of patents it has been awarded in the past decade.
Here’s the rub: The decline of Russia isn’t in the interests of the world. Western economic sanctions may be useful in the short run, but the goal is a stable Russia that is engaged economically and otherwise with Europe, the United States, and the world, not a sickly and isolated Russian bear.
The
government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stepped in and
engaged Putin in talks that should aim at finding a way to keep Ukraine
intact as an independent, neutral buffer state between the European
Union and Russia. That “soft power” role is an appropriate one for
Germany as a thriving democracy and Europe’s leading economic power.
That
effort should free the US to stand back and play the long game of
carrots and sticks aimed at inducing Russia to turn away from an
expansionist policy. Taking steps to make Russia’s incursion into
Ukraine more costly (already begun with sanctions) and boosting
Ukraine’s economy are two actions.
Russia has strong emotional
ties to Ukraine, an important region of the old Soviet Union. Its loss,
as one Russia-watcher has put it, is like “the pain an amputee feels in a
phantom limb.”
Putin and
Russia may long for what now seem like grander days of empire under
czars and communists. But those are roads to a past that can’t be
repeated. Putin’s energy would be better spent on building a different,
new Russia, one whose prosperity is based on cooperation, not
confrontation, with its neighbors.
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