Vladimir Putin made a state of the nation Monday. Apparently, the state of the Russian nation is currently restlessly nostalgic. The slow implosion of the Soviet Union was, according to the President, "the greatest political catastrophe of the last century.” And here we’ve been thinking it was good thing. Putin made reference to the millions of Russians living “trapped” in breakaway republics and the loss of “old ideals.”
Putin is looking forward to democratic transformations, though he clarified that it would be a democracy based on Russian traditions instead of Western ones. Since democracy itself is a Western tradition unknown in Russian history, Putin must be referring to venerable Russian traditions such as militant xenophobia and absolute autocracy. “We must become a free society of free people," he said. And anyone that does not become free will be dealt with severely.
Does anyone else find this spooky?