Just as Russia’s erstwhile strongman Vladimir Putin met with North Korea’s great leader with cup in hand, the Levada Center, a respectable Moscow-based polling organization, revealed that 80 percent of Russians consider their country to be “great.”
The irony should be painful.
Putin goes begging to one of the world’s least great countries, thereby demonstrating that Russia is anything but great, while Russians remain persuaded that Mother Russia exudes greatness.
It’s actually worse than that.
Back in 2016, only 64 percent thought Russia was great. And in 2002, three years after Putin ascended the Kremlin’s throne, the figure stood at 43 percent.
Any minimally objective person capable of withstanding the allure of Putin’s crumbling personality cult would recognize that his misrule has succeeded in transforming Russia from the status of a great power to the status of a geopolitical lightweight, an economic beggar, and an international rogue. If those qualities make a country great, then all the more power to Mother Russia.
But note that perceptions of greatness almost doubled from the time Putin seized power in 1999 to today. This suggests that Russians identify Russia with Putin and, therefore, view their country as great only because they still continue to view Putin in a positive light.
And that, in turn, is ultimately testimony to the power of Putin’s propaganda machine and the continued influence of his ragged personality cult.
In a recent Telegram posting, the rabid propagandist Margarita Simonian referred to Putin as her Nachalnik (NB the upper case), a Russian word that translates best as boss. She should have referred to him as President, so calling him Boss reveals that her attitude toward Putin is not one of institutional respect, but of adulatory subservience. As the Levada poll indicates, Simonyan isn’t the only Russian with “Putin envy.”
Hence, even though Putin has pushed his country over a cliff and is likely to bring about chaos, civil war, and collapse, Russians blithely continue to ignore the writing on the wall and fixate on their Bossman.
There is a silver lining in this sad tale. Contrary to his expectations, Putin is not eternal, and some Russian analysts predict his physical and political demise by the end of the year. Whenever that event transpires, the end of Putin will leave his Russian fans with a political vacuum at the core of their political lives. It’s possible, given Russian political culture’s authoritarian bent, that they’ll fixate their adoration on some other man.
But it’s also possible that their love of greatness and their identification of great Russia with Putin will also open opportunities for change. When their Bossman goes, who knows? Russians might even consider growing up and abandoning their infantile infatuation with “great” father figures.
About the Author
Dr. Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires, and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, including Pidsumky imperii (2009); Puti imperii (2004); Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires (2001); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities (1999); Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism (1993); and The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929 (1980); the editor of 15 volumes, including The Encyclopedia of Nationalism (2000) and The Holodomor Reader (2012); and a contributor of dozens of articles to academic and policy journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and magazines. He also has a weekly blog, “Ukraine’s Orange Blues.”
From the Vault
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0Zed
September 16, 2023 at 11:33 am
Russia is a great power.
Russia is the country with the greatest territory (in extent).
Russia has produced great thinkers, scientists, artists, writers, composers and military men.
It’s natural for a people to love their homeland, especially when it is under duress. That’s true of Russians and Ukrainians.
It’s normal for censorship, propaganda, and official lies to have a certain effect — even over very intelligent people. In time, the truth eventually gets to the people, though it may take longer in a country with an authoritarian government unwilling to admit any mistakes.
Russians have also learned from experience that one can never be too careful in a country led by former KGB officers.
Russia is so great, in fact, that it’s national security, international prestige, and economic vitality do no require it dominate Ukraine. That is Putin’s illegitimate aim no matter what else he says.
Show self-confidence and magnanimity, Russia. Show greatness and negotiate mutually acceptable peace terms with Ukraine.
Show wisdom, end this war, and join the West.
Jim
September 16, 2023 at 12:21 pm
You know things are tough for Kiev when supporters are reduced to snarky comments about how Putin is Russia and he’s the only reason Russians feel good about their country.
If you’re Russian, there’s reason to feel good about Russia… considering Russia status during the ’90’s.
Certainly, Putin was instrumental in rebuilding Russia… but he didn’t do it alone… the Russian People rebuilt Russia… imagine that.
Artillery shells from North Korea… when those shells land, I don’t think anybody’s going to give a damn where those shells originated.
The United States went with tin cup in hand to South Korea to acquire artillery shells, as well. I guess two can play at that game.
I think the snark has played out and is more reflective on the maker of such comments.
They don’t have anything more to talk about.
Time to think of the disaster for Ukraine which was promoted by this very author and his fellow travelers.
They wanted to destroy Russia, but instead destroyed Ukraine.
That’s where their policy ideas lead… destruction for anybody who is dumb to follow their advice.
This is their swan song.
They let their bitter hatred cloud their judgment.
Time to remove them from power because, as we can see, their advice and council only leads to disaster for all who are foolish enough to listen.
Expect many more bitter articles from the losers who supported this failed policy.
By the way, the policy never had a chance to work as planned because their basic assumptions about the situation were wrong… but their pride & hubris blinded them to the inadequacy of their ideas.
They have nobody else to blame… so, they snark about Putin… as their policy lays in ruins at their own feet.
The American People can see these people for what they are: emperors buck naked, claiming to wear purple robes… when they aren’t even wearing rags.
All they deserve is derisive laughter for their failed & stupid ideas… that hurt America.
Bankrupt!
Сheburator
September 16, 2023 at 1:56 pm
Let us imagine for a moment that Putin’s goal in cooperation with North Korea is not so much to get weapons as to put NATO on the splits.
The United States has already lost influence in the Persian Gulf so much that even the fleet with aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf are just targets for Iranian missiles.
Now North Korea will receive advanced weapons systems, and this already limits the capabilities of the United States against China in the event of a war over Taiwan – advanced US bases will be both within China’s reach,
and North Korea will be able to support China’s and Russian’s flanks.
Lonewolfz28
September 16, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Most of the people that thought Russia wasn’t so great, bailed to other countries when Putin started rounding up more cannon fodder for his not so great “special operation”. Anyone left that doesn’t think the country is “great” are too afraid to say so, to anyone, lest they get “volunteered” for the next wave of fodder.
pagar
September 16, 2023 at 3:12 pm
Russia IS great, in that it still exists today, in one (giant) piece despite the best efforts of CIA, DoD, the western media and western politicians.
During the 1990s, both the CIA & DoD were active in southern Russia, particularly in north Caucasus, Chechnya & Dagestan.
Today, both are now very active in Ukraine, helping US and NATO to whittle away Russia’s strength, militarily, economically and also politically.
But Russia is amazingly intact and solid, even the old aged Putin still command high regard. Thus a great country.
What Russia NEEDS to do now is elbow Putin aside AND put a strong-willed leader in his place who has the balls to blow up the west as retaliation for what the DoD, CIA, state dept and the western media have done to Russia itself.
A few tactical nukes, against ukros will cause great havoc to erupt in the west.
A few more or a handful of megaton warheads against Nordic targets plus Taiwan would bring Armageddon to fruition. A total finish for the one-world dream from USA.
Gavin Longmuir
September 16, 2023 at 4:44 pm
Mr. Motyl is engaging in rather a lot of wishful thinking here. There are lots of videos around showing that life in Russian cities today is significantly better than in, say, San Francisco or New York. Equally, Russians can see lots of videos of life in the US — no wonder they think Russia is great.
And who is begging “cup in hand” for weapons — apart from Zelensky, of course, who is totally dependent on donations from foreigners? If Russia wants to trade with North Korea for whatever, that simply shows that Russia has a strong economy which actually produces raw materials and manufactured goods which can be traded internationally. We used to have that kind of economy in the US — but that was then, and this is now.
It is obvious to anyone who pays attention that Zelensky’s offensive against the Donbas is in deep trouble; but apparently Mr. Motyl missed that. It is also fairly clear that President Putin is doing a careful balancing act within Russia to keep the fighting as limited as possible. There is a high probability that anyone who replaced him would have to crank up the level of violence, probably including taking out NATO assets & personnel directly, since that is what many Russians want to see.
Yrr
September 16, 2023 at 5:27 pm
Putin’s rapprochement with north Korea is a retaliation and a warning to the south, if Seoul gives weapons to Ukraine then Russia will give modern weapons to the north.
And don’t worry, everybody (except professor Motyl) got the message.
GhostTomahawk
September 16, 2023 at 9:25 pm
Yeah? Less than half of Americans love their country but love their political party. At least they’re patriotic.
George Gordon Byron
September 17, 2023 at 12:45 am
1) While in 2016, in Jurmala, at the festival, actor Zelensky (Ukraine, humor group “95th Quarter”) compared Ukraine to a porn actress, and now he has made Ukraine just a boulevard beggar, Mr. Motyl is negative plan writes about Russia, which actually does not beg anyone, does not beg for anything, but buys and exchanges something for barter.
Actor Zelensky answers Mr. Motyl: “Ukraine resembles an actress from German films for adults. That is, it is ready to accept in any quantity from any side.”
Mr. Motyl can read more about the Ukrainian porn actress in the Ukrainian media in Ukrainian.
2) At the same time, no one has actually seen any North Korean shells yet. And if someone did see it, it would not be a sin for him to know that both the United States and NATO countries buy a lot of things on the side from a variety of countries. Or is this another, some more democratic and more moral matter?
3) Apparently, asking and begging to give Ukraine money and weapons to Ukraine for free from more than 52 countries is a much more prestigious thing than Russia buying and exchanging for its own money and resources? Strange, however, from the point of view of elementary logic….
Sofronie the Monk
September 17, 2023 at 2:25 am
@pagar: Just love it how Russian propagandists act like Russia is the only one with nuclear weapons. So that means they can shoot them anytime, anywhere, and everyone will just cower in fear and bow to them so that they’re not next.
Oh, wait. There are other countries with nuclear weapons out there that would definitely use them in an extreme scenario.
Tell me, pagar, how would a handful of megaton warheads on Moscow and St. Petersburg go? Are the Russian people willing to die for Putin’s empire? Didn’t go that great for the last guy who thought that. Remember Ipatiev House?
Also, yeah, Russia is very great, downright wonderful. That’s why hey lost half of Europe, because they were so good.
Arash
September 17, 2023 at 3:38 am
Putin is one of the greatest leaders ever existed. Senile American politicians ( Biden, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Feinstein,…) are not even in a same league.
Paul
September 17, 2023 at 5:56 am
Just heard about a specific Russian thing called vranyo. This is some kind of institutionalized form of lying that is so bad in Russia that they have a spesial word for it. Apparently the Russian state, military and society as a whole is so horrible and utterly corrupted that the only way to stand a chance in your job, career, contact with bureaucracy, is to lye your ass off. “Yes we are in exellent shape” “The attack went great” “We knocked out 7 western tanks and an air craft carrier” etc. Do you have a death wish? Great, just tell the truth about something that went bad and you will soon find yourself in the trench closest to Ukrainian offensive. Russian conscripts and officers alike are incentivized to lye instead of telling the truth when things go bad. This makes it impossible for Russian commanders to understand what is the actually reality on the battlefield. Which again makes it impossible to make sound decisions.
This is what Russians always are complaining about when they talk about endemic lying in the military. Latest is Russian State Duma Deputy and former Deputy Commander of the Southern Military District Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev.
Nothing spells fading greatness more than an empire with an institutionalized and incentivized culture of systematic lying to enrich one self or simply to survive. On a greatness curve, Russia is a corrupted version of Austria-Hungary in the late 18-hundreds.
@Jim
You are really having trouble keeping up your facade as an “American” Russian fantasy grievances are seeping through. You should put a note in front of you while you are writing your comments “I am an American” so you don’t forget who you are supposed to be. Troll factory management is not going to be pleased this week.
@pagar
Nothing spells greatness more then you calling for the replacement of the current supposedly great leader and resorting to your standard call for nuking the whole world as a revenge for… for… Well, the “fact” that the special military operation is going exactly as planned
Jim
September 17, 2023 at 12:52 pm
Funny, Paul, seems the United States government officials have the same problem: lying… again & again.
You know how U. S. government officials advance? The ability to lie with a straight face, to their political opponents, but worse… to their own supporters… that is not only lying, but a show of contempt & disdain for their own supporters.
Time to look in the mirror and pick the beam out of our own eye before we call out the splinter in another’s eye.
Paul, my dad piloted B-24 Liberators during WWII and risk his life along with his crew to drop bombs on Nazi Germany to rid Germany and the European Continent of Nazi force of arms and Nazi ideology where you kill & murder to get what you want and if you can’t control a physical asset, you destroy it.
My dad and his fellow Americans, many who sacrificed their lives, didn’t do that in the mid 20th Century to have the U. S. government turn around and support neo-nazi, Banderite ideology in the 21st Century.
Let me be clear, Paul, in my opinion, the Kiev regime should be terminated with extreme prejudice. I don’t support policy which aids a neo-nazi regime, in any way.
Paul, over 50% of Americans don’t support anymore funding for the neo-nazi regime in Kiev… are they all “Russians” because they don’t agree with you?
And, they were lied to by people like you who mindlessly wanted war to weaken Russia.
But it has weakened America in our diplomatic relations around the world, hurt our allies in Europe, and has exposed America’s military unpreparedness.
Paul, who’s the patriot and who is not?
Time to look in the mirror, Paul… you’re no patriot, just a warmonger… and a stupid warmonger at that.
All in all, warmongers are traitors to the American People… because all they care about is the vicarious thrill to power they get when they see other people die.
Pavel
September 17, 2023 at 3:25 pm
What is painful is the fact that this Motyl guy is still present on this platform spitting out his Russophobic content disguised as an expert view
Keith Diggs
September 17, 2023 at 4:32 pm
Really stupid title. Funny how you don’t seem to mind UKRAINE BEGGING IS FOR EVEY G-DANGED THING UNDER THE SUN and would have no problem with their citizens loving their own g-danged country. You’re pathetic shills for war.
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September 17, 2023 at 5:22 pm
I want to to thank you for this wonderful read!! I certainly
loved every little bit of it. I’ve got you book-marked to check out
new things you post…
Billy
September 17, 2023 at 7:29 pm
If Russia is so great why do 25% not have indoor plumbing? It’s a backward cesspool unable to defend their homeland from mysterious explosions! It is a dismal future for young people with ambition being blocked from fleeing the country for freedom.
Sofronie the Monk
September 18, 2023 at 12:44 am
@Pavel: While all the “genuine comments” spewing crap about basically every country out there except for Russia are totally legit, right?
Most of Eastern Europe hates Russians with a vengeance. You made your bed, now sleep in it, try the “phobia” stuff on the funny coloured hair and even funnier gender crowd.
George Gordon Byron
September 19, 2023 at 6:01 am
For Billy:
1) Yours: “If Russia is so great, why don’t 25% have indoor plumbing?”
answer: tell all the uneducated Billys on the globe that 12 million people in Russia do not have access to a central water supply. That’s 8.185538881% of the population. Not having access to central (!!!) water supply means having access to individual water supply (wells, wells). Russia is in the middle in terms of water intake per capita and is in a better position than China, France, Brazil, and Germany. Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, Israel. Czech Republic, Great Britain, Slovakia. Latvia, Luxembourg.
2) You. From which “Anglo-like” and “democratic” country, Billy? I am ready to discuss your “angel-like” country and compare it with Russia!
George Gordon Byron
September 19, 2023 at 6:09 am
For Monk Sophrony:
Yours: Most of Eastern Europe hates Russians with a vengeance.
Answer: And in Europe they hate Germans, British, Austrians, Hungarians, Poles. etc.
They especially hate Romanians because:
1) Romanians are the second largest immigrant group after the Poles, they are easy to single out as immigrants increasing the hostility of the local population.
2) The main problem is the gypsy image of Romanians, their lack of education and lack of professionalism. lack of culture.
3) Romania sends its poor, unemployed and other unwanted people to Western Europe, including the UK.
Vadrako
September 20, 2023 at 2:35 pm
haha Motyl you are a funny propagandist, the audacity of saying the Russian is begging from N.Korea weapons while Ukraine is the one who constantly begs everywhere they go for weapons, ammo, money and they have already received insane amounts of it worth more than 100 billion dollars from almost 50 countries.
Russia has to fight the collective western supply ammo/weapon chain(plus others non western) and they will produce more than the entire collective west, I call that an embarrassment for all the West that ONE country outproducing in ammo and weapons all NATO. So what if they ask to buy some extra ammo from N.Korea? Do you think only Ukraine has that right?