Five Years After Crimea, Russia Has Come Full Circle at Great Cost

[Rogue Valley]

Five Years After Crimea, Russia Has Come Full Circle at Great Cost

The Moscow Times
2/5/19

Vladimir Putin’s approval rating began sliding in January 2019. Having hovered at 66 percent in the last three months of 2018, it fell to 64 percent last month. These figures are not significant in themselves. What's significant is that his rating has not been this low since January 2014, when it stood at 63 percent. Putin's popularity over the last 10-plus years has been pegged to military campaigns and patriotic hysteria. It peaked at 88 percent in September 2008 immediately after Russia’s short war with Georgia (when Putin was officially prime minister), but thereafter it fell slowly but surely, bottoming out at 61 percent in November 2013. Then in 2014, the popular move to annex Crimea saw his rating soar to 86 percent. This symbolic figure established a new social contract between the authorities and society. In return for absolute political support, the state provided meager social services propped up by the restored feeling of belonging to a great power. But in 2017, this contract started to disintegrate. Research headed by Carnegie Moscow Center and the Levada Center showed that the Russian people wanted dramatic change. Consensus had been reached that Russia had become great again. On this backdrop, anti-Western fervor was gradually losing its effectiveness, and people demanded that the government fix the depressing economic reality. Following the March 2018 presidential elections, the opposite seemed to happen. There were hikes in VAT and fuel prices, a five-year fall in real incomes, followed by the deeply unpopular move to raise the retirement age. Even Russia’s triumphant hosting of the FIFA World Cup didn’t work in Putin’s favor; it merely reduced anti-Western sentiment among Russians.

In five years, we have thus come full circle. The five years have, however, taken a toll on Russia. The country has seen economic depression, a deluge of repressive legislation, and a sustained anti-Western propaganda campaign. However, this time it seems that Putin doesn’t have another Crimea up his sleeve and his trusted formula is no longer having the desired effect. In 2018, the arrest of Ukrainian sailors off the coast of Crimea and the testing of a new hypersonic glide missile — described by Putin as an “excellent New Year’s gift to the nation” — left people cold. Similarly, recent talks with Japan on the status of the Kuril Islands failed to inspire feelings of national pride. Domestically, the defeat of several government-backed candidates in September’s regional elections has forced the authorities to reconsider what their electorate actually want. There is clear discontent but the people lack the instruments to communicate their demands and wishes. The normal system of representative democracy has long been dismantled. Putin is no longer the symbol of the nation he once was. He is a living person who bears responsibility for what is happening in the country as much as any other senior official. With this in mind, it’s worth keeping a close eye on his approval rating.

Amen. QFT

 

[Hawkeye10]

The Moscow Times is a well known anti Putin outfit...I don't take anything they say negative about Putin as truth without something way better than The Moscow Times Says.

 

[CaughtInThe]

The Moscow Times is a well known anti Putin outfit...I don't take anything they say negative about Putin as truth without something way better than The Moscow Times Says.

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans in the US didn't trust intelligence people (like Putin) from the old USSR.

 

[Hawkeye10]

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans in the US didn't trust intelligence people (like Putin) from the old USSR.

Notice your immediate refusal to listen.

It's bad for you.

 

[Rogue Valley]

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans in the US didn't trust intelligence people (like Putin) from the old USSR.

You have to understand. Hawkeye is a conspiricist-zen-master.

 

[Westphalian]

The Moscow Times is a well known anti Putin outfit...I don't take anything they say negative about Putin as truth without something way better than The Moscow Times Says.

Kolesnikov's piece is full of unsubstantiated nonsense. I don't think he's ever met an ordinary Russian.


Now, let's look at his employers, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


Headquartered in Washington DC and funded by groups such as:


Open Society Forums

UK Dept for International Development

Australian Dept for Foreign Affairs

Bank of America

US Pacific Command


No agenda there :roll::roll::roll::roll:

 

[Tanngrisnir]

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans in the US didn't trust intelligence people (like Putin) from the old USSR.

I'm old enough to remember when Americans didn't need a spread sheet to keep track of all the federal investigations into an administration.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Kolesnikov's piece is full of unsubstantiated nonsense. I don't think he's ever met an ordinary Russian.


Now, let's look at his employers, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


Headquartered in Washington DC and funded by groups such as:


Open Society Forums

UK Dept for International Development

Australian Dept for Foreign Affairs

Bank of America

US Pacific Command


No agenda there :roll::roll::roll::roll:

How many people in the West do you figure have developed the ability to spot when power is lying to them?

No where near enough is the answer.

People tend to be willful and dim.

WE USED TO BE BETTER

 

[Rogue Valley]

Kolesnikov's piece is full of unsubstantiated nonsense. I don't think he's ever met an ordinary Russian.


Now, let's look at his employers, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.


Headquartered in Washington DC and funded by groups such as:


Open Society Forums

UK Dept for International Development

Australian Dept for Foreign Affairs

Bank of America

US Pacific Command


No agenda there :roll::roll::roll::roll:

Brought to you by the Russians at 55 Savushkina Street[sup]®[/sup], St. Petersburg.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Brought to you by the Russians at 55 Savushkina Street[sup]®[/sup], St. Petersburg.

I am an American currently sitting in the Starbucks Mother Ship people watching and thinking about my next book so not Russian, not to mention I point out that Russia And China are in deep cooperation now, driving an agenda that is deeply hostile to America and all of the West, who has pointed out that the source is crap. The piece is also crap as journalism. It is so-so as propaganda.

 

[Evilroddy]

Five Years After Crimea, Russia Has Come Full Circle at Great Cost

Amen. QFT

Rogue Valley:

QFT. Quantum Field Theory?
QFT Question Formulation Technique?
QFT Quantitative Feedback Theory?
QFT Qualified Funeral Trust?
QFT Quantum Fourier Transformation?
QFT Quality Family Time?
QFT Quality Face Time?
QFT Quantitative Fluorescence Technique?
QFT Quit Freaking Talking*?
QFT Quite Freaking True*?

* cleaned up versions.

I hate acronyms.

Cheers.
Stupidroddy.

 

[Evilroddy]

Rogue Valley:

Oh, never mind. Quoted for truth. More annoying web-slang. Sigh.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

 

[Westphalian]

How many people in the West do you figure have developed the ability to spot when power is lying to them?

No where near enough is the answer.

People tend to be willful and dim.

WE USED TO BE BETTER

Fair points, but I wonder whether your last sentence is true.


Isn't the hysteria over 'Russian interference' and 'fake news' really a reflection of the slightly increased number of westerners who now think for themselves? Isn't it that the elites are a little worried that their ability to control the masses is waning?

 

[Westphalian]

Brought to you by the Russians at 55 Savushkina Street[sup]®[/sup], St. Petersburg.

No RV - it's obtained from the Carnegie website itself. Take a look.

But I'm sure you know it's the truth. Your modus operandi is to obfuscate the truth and try to discredit those who publish it.


To quote from a famous film: You can't handle the truth.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Fair points, but I wonder whether your last sentence is true.


Isn't the hysteria over 'Russian interference' and 'fake news' really a reflection of the slightly increased number of westerners who now think for themselves? Isn't it that the elites are a little worried that their ability to control the masses is waning?

No, it is about dim people who had been assured by the so-called journalists and damn near the rest of power by early Sep 2016 that Hillary was going to hit the POTUS chair as the arc of history foretold needing to decide between two choices....one they got lied to by power, two Russia stole the election.

Blaming Russia makes their heads easier to sort, so that is what they do, because people suck now.

 

[Rexedgar]

Rogue Valley:

Oh, never mind. Quoted for truth. More annoying web-slang. Sigh.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

Don’t feel like the ‘Lone Ranger,’ I had to search for the definition, as well.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Rogue Valley:

Oh, never mind. Quoted for truth. More annoying web-slang. Sigh.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

C'mon Roddy lol. This is a debate site. QFT is a debate site acronym.

Should you ever see it, QRF = Quick Reaction Force. A military acronym.

 

[Rexedgar]

C'mon Roddy lol. This is a debate site. QFT is a debate site acronym.

Should you ever see it, QRF = Quick Reaction Force. A military acronym.

Those of us from a certain generation have difficulty picking up on the “colloquialisms” of the inter web!