As the Russian war against Ukraine continues and has not been justified by achieving promised gains for the Kremlin, refugees from in or near Russian-occupied sectors of Ukraine are reporting the same response: “I have spoken to my parents………..my grandfather……my brother in Leningrad, in Moscow, in Kirov Oblast, and they will not believe this horror of Russian aggression is happening at all. They say it is lies, because news announcers on state TV report there is no such destruction, and gruesome pictures of bodies and bombed buildings are fake. We believe in what President Putin is doing – it is for the good of Mother Russia, and you are lying to us!”
Putin’s approval rating, with doctored polls, recently soared north of 80 percent, a jump of almost 20 points since the Ukraine war began. Despite evident shakiness in meetings and reported severely ill health, for many middle class and poor Russians, Vladimir Putin can do no wrong.
It will take overwhelming proof, on an international scale, to galvanize Russian mindsets into accepting the truth that Russia alone can never be a dominant power, ruling the rest of the world with “a strong leader who looks after us and always does what is right.” As in Hitler’s day, any nation which fails to acknowledge Russia’s dominance is fair game for the flying metal hell of all-out war.
This seems to be characteristic of people groups and countries which, despite education, have never progressed beyond wanting a looming father figure in leadership, ignoring his shortcomings or limited qualifications.
And Putin remains in power from having twice bulldozed Russian constitutional laws so he could keep it, atop the perilous and deadly chess game of post-Soviet politics. For Russians, particularly in the rural hinterlands, Putin IS Russia, his value as a visible symbol outweighing repeated and sustained power grabs and private assassinations.
His several public opponents including courageous Alexei Navalny are painted as enemies of the state itself. When these have dropped from sight in prison or died as a result of his frequent KGB-perfected poisonings, not many friends of theirs are brave enough to mourn in public, to avoid the same fate.
No questions. The more Russian freedom is squeezed, the more its people have seemed to cleave to Kremlin-generated politspeak in lockstep agreement that Putin is better than dreaded revolutionary chaos at home, for Mother Russia and her children.
The Russian “state” is the family, never mind that one’s cousin’s teenaged draftee son is lying dead somewhere in a bag, near Kharkiv. The Russian Army does not retrieve its dead, nor in some cases its dying, who are of no further use to the omnivorous State or its wars.
Still no widespread whisper of dissent from Putin’s large fan base has been heard, at least in the west. Nor will there be a revolution which deposes him. Russia itself will not change – it is too huge and entrenched in a habitually embattled and isolationist mindset, partly caused by extreme annual cold and lengthy distance from Western Europe.
The war against Ukraine will dwindle from lack of supply, as Putin knows, and Zelensky and his brave defenders will set about the hard task of rebuilding their country. Their future will be theirs, with new allies gained, and with no other direction than up.
Putin, playing a long game, taunts the West for cowardice and corruption, and does anyone with much brain power not yet perceive that this is a proxy war begun by Russia, against the United States?
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
