“Z - We Are United.” Children from PS 12 in Stanitsa Pavlovskaya, Kuban’ prepared new year presents for the soldiers in Special Military Operation during arts and crafts lesson.
Westernsky believe invasion of Ukraine is Putin’s war. Russia is Putin’s mafia state. Russian citizens brainwashed by Big Lie on TV can’t think logically and acknowledge that they are evil invaders. Topple Putin, and the whole house of cards collapses and Russians learn the truth of what they have done, repent and clamor for freedom and democracy.
This narrative does contain some grains of truth, yet overall is a gross oversimplification of the kind that led to chaos in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and other countries where the dethronement of the dictator was expected to bring political changes to the nations but didn't.
“Soldier, I wish you peaceful skies above your head.” No contradiction for faith is irrational.
In truth, Putin is merely the latest manifestation of Russian statehood, which, unlike the supreme leader, is transcendent. Think of Putin as Dalai Lama of Russian Statehood religion.
The power is personalised in Russia, and through the long duration of his reign, Putin’s character traits have imprinted on the state machine and each citizen and beyond and reflected on the shifting pantheon of Gods that inhabit Kremlin Fortress.
Putin the Bullshitter aka Whimpering Zeus turned out to be an exceptionally weak manifestation of Statehood. The pantheon of lesser Gods at his command that turn up on TV screens every day is likewise kind of ludicrous.
There’s Valentina Matvienko - Goddess of Middle-Aged Women Nobody Notices;
Sergey Shoigu - Medals-adorned God of War Cosplay and Pretend Tank Battles;
Vladimir Soloviev - Microphone-gripping God of Verbal Flagellation;
Dmitry Peskov - Sophistic Messenger of Whimpering Zeus;
Vyacheslav Volodyn - God of Orgiastic Obedience;
Yevgeny Prigozhin - Sledgehammer-wielding God of Low Caste Inmates;
Ramsan Kadyrov - Camera-holding God of Tik-Tok Troops.
After the end of reign of Putin the Whimpering Zeus, the Kremlin Fortress will still be there and other Gods’ positions will be quickly filled in, and the divine game will carry on regardless of the results of the war in Ukraine.
Statehood is the religion of Russians. Not Putin.
It’s like Musk is the latest manifestation of the capitalism cult. He’s not the cult of capitalism.
Russians worship Gods of Kremlin Fortress but do have a collective consciousness of their own with its internal logic that works like a safety valve to navigate road ahead in the rare event when Gods overshoot.
Make no mistake, Russians do support war in Ukraine as the Kremlin Fortress prescribes, but at the same time sabotage active participation, and when drafted don’t show due diligence and enthusiasm to fight Ukronazis. Why?
Russians feel that Special Military Operation doesn’t cut it as the New Great Patriotic War. They don’t want to die as martyrs-heroes to overcome superior Ukronazi machine the state demands of them in accordance with the Myth of Great Patriotic War.
Nonetheless, it would be erroneous to think that Russians are against Russo-Ukraine War in principle.
They don’t object to Special Military Operation as Gods in Kremlin Fortress know way better than them, and they are little people with no divine power.
The war is righteous because statehood is sacred, but it is not of the Sacred War calibre.
A small percentage of Russians who don’t support war as they believe Gods in Kremlin Fortress made a mistake, still feel empathy towards mobilised soldiers and want to help them out with equipment, uniforms, candles, stoves to ease killing more Ukronazis.
A Russian person can feel that the war in Ukraine is unjust, he might be averse to mobilisation, and yet he will gladly help out his drafted countrymen out of his pocket or with encouragement to continue waging war and killing more Ukrainian servicemen and civilians, all because his religion of the Kremlin Fortress prescribes him that it’s part of his identity.
Russians do not separate their identities from the state.
My half-Ukrainian cousin who’s a naturalised citizen of Italy supports Russia in this war and got fired for not siding with her Ukrainian co-workers. She cut me out when she mistakenly thought I questioned her loyalties when I referred to her mother being Ukrainian.
My other half-Ukrainian cousin whose wife was born and raised in Dnypro, supports Russia in this war. When I asked him, “but what about your wife whose city is being reduced to ruins?” He said, “it’s not that simple.”
My daughter’s friend’s dad, an upper middle class auditor-for-hire for state corporations who used to hang out with me, said, “Ukraine had to be finished off sooner or later.”
Little kids of the mobilised soldiers in Irkutsk put on their dads’ gear to cosplay fighting Ukronazis.
I believed that my relatives and friends were liberals, and technically they were, until the war began.
When it comes to the crunch, there are no liberals and conservatives, no pro-Putin and anti-Putin Russians.
The vast majority of Russians associate their identity and belief system with the statehood. And if the state is waging war in Ukraine, they must and do support it. Good or bad it’s their war. And if they don’t, they’re not Russians. And if they’re not Russians, then who are they?
Any exception proves this rule.
Virgin Mary was awarded two medals for killing Ukronazis and recognised as a true Russian.