Why Putin Will Win Hatred of the Russians was key to his success

The upcoming presidential election in Russia will be another venue for the meeting. We already know the winner well, he will start his fifth term. However, elections in Russia have an important function – Ensuring and maintaining popularity. Even an incumbent dictator like Vladimir Putin must be careful in what he says and does in his current situation.

Therefore, as noted by the independent portal Medusa, the Russian leader wants to increase his support in the next campaign, Waging a fierce anti-Western campaign, abandoning focus on war. In the coming months, expect Putin to cause chaos in the West while Russia remains a peaceful place.

It almost seems like a recreation of entertainment. So be it Putin has been using anti-Western forces in Russia since the US intervention in Libya in 2011., and since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, they have peaked. For example, when referring to the situation in Israel, he immediately accused the “greedy foreign policy of the West”.

However, that is what characterizes Putin’s anti-Western statements about the situation in Israel Within a month they increased his public support by 3%. Anonymous sources in the Moscow administration directly state that there is a reason for this.

It may surprise us that Russian society can still fall for such persistent propaganda. Nevertheless, it represents a principle that has been the basis of power in Russia for centuries. Managing Fear and AversionCitizen must be controlled.

In the Russian imagination, this mythical “West” is the perfect enemy to blame for the problems plaguing their country. Especially from Russia, since the mass protests of 2011, a certain kind of image has been created. A moral struggle between its “traditional Russian values” and “rotten Western liberalism”.

Russians must counter, of course, how entrenched the myth of a fallen and backward West is. Shows the extent of use of words such as “rotten”, “fallen” or “satanic”.. Such words, more associated with narrow-minded second-rate political bloggers, have already been uttered by leading Russian politicians.

Putin’s image of the “West” among Russians has created a real image among most of them A sense of the need to fight and defend their “normal view” of the world. Therefore, the idea of ​​returning to the borders of the Russian Empire since 1914 to “protect states from the global collapse caused by Western ideology” has been gaining popularity in Russia.

The issue of military interventions is also very important when talking about Russian anti-Western sentiments. It also refers to historical events and the rivalry between the Soviet Union and NATO. In practice Anti-Western sentiments in Russia are still a result of the Cold War and NATO expansion in Europe..

It is very popular in Russia, especially to refer to America as the world’s biggest colonizer, which only brings destruction. Russian officials like to play the card of anti-colonialism against the US… thus justifying their own military interventions..

Criticism of US intervention is intended to justify Russian intervention. For ordinary Russians, this propaganda is based on the fact that such actions are a reflection of what the United States is doing. If Washington can make military interventions, so must Moscow.

At the same time, a view is being created that Russian intervention is more justified because it is supposed to defend countries against the “bloodthirsty West”, e.g. Russian intervention in Syria or Ukraine. Thus, playing on the idea of ​​fighting US imperialism, Putin gains support among the Russian population for his interventions.

The spread of anti-Western sentiments in Russia is influenced by a very important factor from Russia’s recent history. indicates Political and economic situation in Russia in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The tragedy for many Russians at that time was related to unemployment and the decline of the state’s position on the international stage, associated with the first great “opening to the West.”

For many Russians, perestroika and the initial infatuation with the West are associated with a difficult time of transition in the country and a decline in living standards and instability.. Hence the view that links Russia’s difficult situation in the 1990s with the influence of Western ideas.

As Maria Domańska notes in her work, “Addicted to Conflict. The Internal Conditions of the Kremlin’s Anti-Western Policy,” there was a reaction among Russians living at the time to an “imperial mentality” that wanted to restore the status of a world power. Therefore America has become the embodiment of all negative values ​​in the imagination of Russians.

Elements of the myth of the Civil War, the struggle against American intervention, and the historical events that shaped it. Anti-Western sentiment is an important weapon in Putin’s hands today, thanks to which he can easily maintain popularity and, consequently, power. See how efficiently it was used during the war in Ukraine.

Indeed, anti-Western propaganda now dominates Russian narratives. Putin presents the war not as a direct struggle against Ukraine, but as a covert war against the West, mainly the United States.. An example was the moment when the Ukrainians first attacked Russian positions with Washington-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Putin referred mainly to US weapons, practically ignoring the Ukrainians fighting them. By doing so, Putin can explain to his compatriots that his failure in Ukraine is not due to the incompetence of his military, but rather to the mythical “West”..

Anti-Western sentiment in Russia is a very strong weapon in the hands of the government, which maintains a bellicose mentality. Even if the war in Ukraine is not going to Moscow’s liking, it is an obvious “sacred” conflict over Russianness from which one cannot retreat. They feel it Russians are willing to follow their leader’s word to the death.

It can even be said that love for Russia is considered hatred against the West. Unfortunately, this pathological condition maintains the cycle of authoritarianism, Making slaves out of the Russians at their own request.