“..Of course I am a neo-Soviet man..”. And I agree with Putin that the collapse of the USSR was a tragedy for most in the USSR the results of which you lament in your patronizing “shadenfreude” description of Russian suffering. At least I know that there was much good in the USSR, as there is – yes – in the West.
Truth is fact multiplied by faith. Same facts, different truths. I believe that a strong, independent Russia is a stabilizing factor in the world. You and the likes of you in the West believe that such an outcome is to be resisted with all means possible.

You really assume that anyone here believes that you CARE about Russians making a poor living, having an average life span much shorter than such in the West, etc, etc… – all your bleeding heart concern for the Russian people – and, you miss the point.

A Western based construct is a noun, not adjective, not a verb. A Western based construct is a form of democracy that suits the West, that suits the La Russophobe, that xstates that the KGB destroyed the USSR (and not the inept Communist apparatchiks and the US -sponsored agents of influence, the corrupt elites in the Soviet republics – Yeltsin, Aliyev, Nazarbayev, etc, etc.., feeding on the passive, impotent, brainwashed, forlorn, Soviet people). Good job then, no doubt. The West won, the Soviet project is over. We move on. Russia learned her lesson.

But.

But never again, LaRussophobe. I know who I am, do you?

Mikhail Drabkin

You may not know it, but you are repeating Soviet propaganda, with its drumbeat that the West can’t tell Russia how to live. You may have missed it, but that drumbeat is now silent. The USSR destroyed itself. Only self-destructive neo-Soviet man can now hear its high-pitched wail. This same drumbeat has brought Vladimir Putin to power, and it will drive Russia to the same fate as the USSR unless neo-Soviet man too can silence it.

It isn’t a “Western-blessed construct” that working for an average wage of $2.50 per hour, as Russia does, is bad. It isn’t a “Western-blessed construct” that an adult male should live past the age of 60 on average. And it isn’t a “Western-blessed construct” that if an organization like the KGB destroys a nation like the USSR, it shouldn’t be blindly handed unchecked power to do it all over again. No, these are not “Western-blessed constructs.” The are basic facts, and only neo-Soviet man can seek to deny or rationalize them.

Global Voices online has a roundup of blog reactions to Russia’s regional elections.
……

This reminds me of the way the Bolsheviks perceived the elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1917 – nothing has changed, no surprises, all power in the hands of the capitalists and so forth.

It is perhaps for the reasons that many of the writers are the neophytes to Western values and have lost certainty on where their roots are, and in the Russian tradition of expressing self certainty through a community need to associate with the mainstream in the West.

Much indeed has been surprising comparing the outcome with expectations in Russia before the vote: Just Russia was supposed to challenge Communists, win their constituency and in general, siphon off votes from United Russia. Surprises on both accounts, from the Russian standpoint. SPS’ poor showing despite the enormously expensive campaign they conducted, and that only in a few of the 14 districts.

Of course, SPS and other per-Western forces showed poorly – a disappointment for the Russophobic Westerner (due to Putin’ machinations no doubt) the true meaning of democracy for which is Russia mired in weakness and internal strife.

There is no single model to meaningful and productive life, and a Western-blessed construct in Russia is a delusional dream of the historically illiterate.

Mikhail Drabkin