In 1991, the US had the chance to build political and economic ties between Russia and Europe and Russia and the US. It chose instead to loot the country. The result is that Russia is now a fascist country with intentions to conquer all the territories that it has ever held as part of its empire. Putin of course is responsible for his own actions. However, the fertile ground on which his popularity flourishes was prepared by the US.
Are you referring to those “Oligarchs”.
I gather most came from the same mould, but who actually funded them? Not the New York moneylenders/ banking fraternity by any remote chance?
The oligarchs acquired their assets by bribing officials to enable them to buy them on the cheap or get them through rigging bidding processes. They also got controlling shares by buying them out from workers for much less than they were actually work, often at times giving them alcohol or other gifts in exchange for them. They fell for this because they themselves haf no experience about working at a capitalist system what’s they use that play off their ignorance. The Russians blame the West because it allows them to absolve themselves of any responsibility for screwing their country up, It’s A coping mechanism.
Utter nonsense.
Russians did the looting.
Why is it that most former Soviet Block countries successfully transitioned into democratic and capitalist system?
What about China?
If you know real Russian history what happened under Gorbachov, Yeltsin and Putin is not at all surprising.
You can not change mentality of serfes easily even if you tried.
Nothing changed since Muscovy were tax collectors for the Tatars.
Always waiting for Tsar to do something.
Always blaming the West for their poverty and violence.
Apologies – just replicated your comment as I hadn’t scrolled down to read yours yet.
Totally agree with you.
Russia’s going nowhere until it grows up and takes responsibility for its own actions and recognises whta it actually is and the need to change. Almost as if the country were an alcoholic … sadly like many of its people.
US and European firms invested heavily in Russia after 1990. Many of these assets were ultimately appropriated by the Russian state. Russia was fast tracked into the G8, and handed the Soviet Union’s seat on the UN Security Council. Ukraine was induced to give up its nuclear weapons and a blind eye was turned to Russia’s military intervention in Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova and elsewhere. Russia is a proud power with great resources. Its transition to a market economy was its own responsibility. After all, the rest of the world had been put to great cost by its attempts over the previous 70 years to export its toxic Marxist – Leninist ideology.
Nonsense. Russia looted itself. It’s the oligarchs who stole and ripped off the population. Not the West. Russia has never had a functioning, stable legal system with reliable private property rights. You can’t blame the West for all this. It’s all home grown.
The West cannot engage meaningfully with Russia until Russia actually ups its game and reforms itself to meet acepted international standards of conduct. But little sign of that happening. Just imagine the chaos if Russia had been admitted to NATO.
Please just stop this puerile nonsense.
The US absolutely welcomed the opportunity for its businesses to make some money by investing in Russia and creating jobs there, thereby helping the Russian economy grow and its people survive the abject poverty in which they were left by their communists overlords and by the collapse of the Potemkin village that the USSR was. But the Russians gleefully looted state businesses and made sure that well-connected locals wound up with the keys to what was left of the kingdom. Not the fault of the West or the US.
Jules Anjim
1 month ago
You secure the shopping trolleys, you win the people’s hearts.
Rob N
1 month ago
The author seems to be implying that the West does not want to destroy Russia. I can certainly see why Russians might think differently!
Those who down voted me please say why and I shall explain why you are wrong
Stephen Walsh
1 month ago
What possible value could opinion polls be in measuring public support for such an oppressive regime, which now has conscription as another mechanism for terrorising the population? If Putin was sure he’d win a free election, he’d have a free election.
The opinion polls are run by external agencies and there’s no evidence that people are lying. As to why Putin does not just have free elections – he’s a bit paranoid. It’s not like the west doesn’t use the establishment media to denigrate the opposition, like Corbyn or Trump. Or outright bans in some cases.
Well that’s as may be. But I know one thing – if I lived in Russia and an opinion poll company contacted me for my opinion I know exactly what I would do. My comments would all be pro Putin!
I think the better term for both Russia and the US’s elections is ‘managed’ rather than ‘rigged’. The UK’s likewise. The Establishments in each state knows what strings to pull (gerrymandering, voter suppression, lawfair, media management) when any candidate strays to far from the (uni-)Party line.
There’s one more candidate with an anti war message, put by kremlin probably to control protest voters
William Cameron
1 month ago
Weak Leaders create enemies (that dont exist) because they then demand loyalty against the non existent threat.
The West is not interested in Russian territory. Russia had its chance to free itself and it just gave power to Oligarchs who stole its assets. Why would the West be the least interested in Russia ?
Andrew E Walker
1 month ago
It is truly funny that Mr Garner fails to understand that the word ‘elections’ also means ‘choices.’
Samuel Ross
1 month ago
US election machines are ‘the most secure in the world’. Deny that party hacks might hack the electronic voting records, and you’re an ‘election denier’. But deny that Russian voting machines are valid and you’re an Unherd author. 😉
Actually, electronic voting is deeply insecure. One push of a button and a narrow loss becomes a narrow win. If democracy will be secure, it will be because human eyes viewed each vote, each party had access to the process of voting, to ‘keep ’em honest’.
After all, it ‘takes two thieves to strike an honest bargain’! 😉
0 0
1 month ago
As far as I see it, when it comes to the crimes being committed in Ukraine by Russia, your average Russian is complicit in them to some degree. It’s the same type of complacency the German people had with the Nazis or the Japanese had with the militarist, though the crimes be committed have not the level committed by the previous two (not yet at least). They may not be involved in the crimes but they’re supporting it or at least enabling it. You look on Russian media you see people advocating genocide, you see on social media people celebrating atrocities, as well as intercepts of wives and parents asking soldiers to loot from Ukrainian territories. It’s like what the Germans did when they got into bed with the Nazis, they knew who these people were, what they wanted, and what they wanted to do, And they supported them anyways. The problem with Russia is that you have a culture that developed in which the individual has always been completely subordinated to the powerful, the powerful or allowed to do whatever they want with no accountability, and Liberty has never existed and power has always been absolute.
The result you have a society that’s extremely authoritarian, very hierarchical, and collectivist to the point what’s the individual has no value onto himself. It’s been made worse is at the various regimes of existed throughout history in Russia have worked successfully to instill a siege mentality amongst the populace in relation to the outside world. They made this worse by reinforcing a sense of the Messianism about Russia role in the world, they first incarnation of this was that they would be the protectors of true Christianity in the form of orthodoxy, they would save the world by protecting and and propagating the true faith from the heretical Catholics lands and the Muslim hordes. This carried over into Marxist leninism, and what they would confront the capitalist countries of the decadent West, and now they’re going to save the world from the American led Atlantic order. The result you have a soceity with highly distorted, one-sided, an extremely inflated sense of itself and it’s history that thinks it can do no wrong, which is enabled by whatever regime and power encourages this thinking. It’s made worse that Russia has a massive inferiority complex towards the West, which leads it to overcompensate when dealing with it. The other reason is that why this is narrative so seductive, and why Russians believe Putin’s lies is because they want to believe them, it allows them to absolve all responsibility for what’s happening as well as deny the awful state of the country is in, as well as avoid confronting the various horrible crimes that occurred in their country through its history. Putin is an embodiment of this desire, and he’s in many ways of product of Russian society, embodying its worst traits, he didn’t come out of a vacuum and if he didn’t come into existence, someone like him probably would have come around. The conditions of Russian society enabled someone like him to rise.They’re basically trying to avoid the painful soul-searching and reform that the Germans and the Japanese went through at the end of the second world war. My fear is that the west and Russia will be embroiled in a series of wars in which Russia is reduced in manpower, treasure, material, and power, and Russia will be so reduced that the Russian people will face a choice eventually. Russia will hit rock bottom, it can either change its ways and embrace a better future for itself, or continue down a path of self destruction. It’s how you deal with an addict, the addict must want the change and make a commitment to change to do so. Unfortunately in the meantime, a great deal of death and destruction will happen before the possibility of this coming to fruition.
Well said, but that was pretty long. Less is more, son.
Andrew Boughton
1 month ago
The most notorious nonsense written about Russia is by our “Russian experts” like Ian. What an irony that he writes about Russian propaganda. Our own Western polling companies have consistently measured support for Putin for 20+ years that closely mirrors the election outcomes. Most especially those proactively used both domestically and in FP by the Democrats, like Penn, Schoen & Berland. We have to get these things right to sail the ship of state. So what strange data does Ian use? Making things up doesn’t help formulate policy, just helps Ian scratch a personal itch.
In 1991, the US had the chance to build political and economic ties between Russia and Europe and Russia and the US. It chose instead to loot the country. The result is that Russia is now a fascist country with intentions to conquer all the territories that it has ever held as part of its empire. Putin of course is responsible for his own actions. However, the fertile ground on which his popularity flourishes was prepared by the US.
Are you referring to those “Oligarchs”.
I gather most came from the same mould, but who actually funded them? Not the New York moneylenders/ banking fraternity by any remote chance?
I do not know. Is there ant connection between them?
The oligarchs acquired their assets by bribing officials to enable them to buy them on the cheap or get them through rigging bidding processes. They also got controlling shares by buying them out from workers for much less than they were actually work, often at times giving them alcohol or other gifts in exchange for them. They fell for this because they themselves haf no experience about working at a capitalist system what’s they use that play off their ignorance. The Russians blame the West because it allows them to absolve themselves of any responsibility for screwing their country up, It’s A coping mechanism.
Utter nonsense.
Russians did the looting.
Why is it that most former Soviet Block countries successfully transitioned into democratic and capitalist system?
What about China?
If you know real Russian history what happened under Gorbachov, Yeltsin and Putin is not at all surprising.
You can not change mentality of serfes easily even if you tried.
Nothing changed since Muscovy were tax collectors for the Tatars.
Always waiting for Tsar to do something.
Always blaming the West for their poverty and violence.
Apologies – just replicated your comment as I hadn’t scrolled down to read yours yet.
Totally agree with you.
Russia’s going nowhere until it grows up and takes responsibility for its own actions and recognises whta it actually is and the need to change. Almost as if the country were an alcoholic … sadly like many of its people.
US and European firms invested heavily in Russia after 1990. Many of these assets were ultimately appropriated by the Russian state. Russia was fast tracked into the G8, and handed the Soviet Union’s seat on the UN Security Council. Ukraine was induced to give up its nuclear weapons and a blind eye was turned to Russia’s military intervention in Chechnya, Georgia, Moldova and elsewhere. Russia is a proud power with great resources. Its transition to a market economy was its own responsibility. After all, the rest of the world had been put to great cost by its attempts over the previous 70 years to export its toxic Marxist – Leninist ideology.
Your stupidity is phenomenal
Nonsense. Russia looted itself. It’s the oligarchs who stole and ripped off the population. Not the West. Russia has never had a functioning, stable legal system with reliable private property rights. You can’t blame the West for all this. It’s all home grown.
The West cannot engage meaningfully with Russia until Russia actually ups its game and reforms itself to meet acepted international standards of conduct. But little sign of that happening. Just imagine the chaos if Russia had been admitted to NATO.
Please just stop this puerile nonsense.
The US absolutely welcomed the opportunity for its businesses to make some money by investing in Russia and creating jobs there, thereby helping the Russian economy grow and its people survive the abject poverty in which they were left by their communists overlords and by the collapse of the Potemkin village that the USSR was. But the Russians gleefully looted state businesses and made sure that well-connected locals wound up with the keys to what was left of the kingdom. Not the fault of the West or the US.
You secure the shopping trolleys, you win the people’s hearts.
The author seems to be implying that the West does not want to destroy Russia. I can certainly see why Russians might think differently!
I think by west you mean the US an I do not think it is any secret
Those who down voted me please say why and I shall explain why you are wrong
What possible value could opinion polls be in measuring public support for such an oppressive regime, which now has conscription as another mechanism for terrorising the population? If Putin was sure he’d win a free election, he’d have a free election.
The opinion polls are run by external agencies and there’s no evidence that people are lying. As to why Putin does not just have free elections – he’s a bit paranoid. It’s not like the west doesn’t use the establishment media to denigrate the opposition, like Corbyn or Trump. Or outright bans in some cases.
Well that’s as may be. But I know one thing – if I lived in Russia and an opinion poll company contacted me for my opinion I know exactly what I would do. My comments would all be pro Putin!
Yes there is low trust and high suspicion of the state/authorities in the former USSR. The power changes, the support changes.
But is it any more rigged than the US election?
I think the better term for both Russia and the US’s elections is ‘managed’ rather than ‘rigged’. The UK’s likewise. The Establishments in each state knows what strings to pull (gerrymandering, voter suppression, lawfair, media management) when any candidate strays to far from the (uni-)Party line.
Well said
Yes
There’s one more candidate with an anti war message, put by kremlin probably to control protest voters
Weak Leaders create enemies (that dont exist) because they then demand loyalty against the non existent threat.
The West is not interested in Russian territory. Russia had its chance to free itself and it just gave power to Oligarchs who stole its assets. Why would the West be the least interested in Russia ?
It is truly funny that Mr Garner fails to understand that the word ‘elections’ also means ‘choices.’
US election machines are ‘the most secure in the world’. Deny that party hacks might hack the electronic voting records, and you’re an ‘election denier’. But deny that Russian voting machines are valid and you’re an Unherd author. 😉
Actually, electronic voting is deeply insecure. One push of a button and a narrow loss becomes a narrow win. If democracy will be secure, it will be because human eyes viewed each vote, each party had access to the process of voting, to ‘keep ’em honest’.
After all, it ‘takes two thieves to strike an honest bargain’! 😉
As far as I see it, when it comes to the crimes being committed in Ukraine by Russia, your average Russian is complicit in them to some degree. It’s the same type of complacency the German people had with the Nazis or the Japanese had with the militarist, though the crimes be committed have not the level committed by the previous two (not yet at least). They may not be involved in the crimes but they’re supporting it or at least enabling it. You look on Russian media you see people advocating genocide, you see on social media people celebrating atrocities, as well as intercepts of wives and parents asking soldiers to loot from Ukrainian territories. It’s like what the Germans did when they got into bed with the Nazis, they knew who these people were, what they wanted, and what they wanted to do, And they supported them anyways. The problem with Russia is that you have a culture that developed in which the individual has always been completely subordinated to the powerful, the powerful or allowed to do whatever they want with no accountability, and Liberty has never existed and power has always been absolute.
The result you have a society that’s extremely authoritarian, very hierarchical, and collectivist to the point what’s the individual has no value onto himself. It’s been made worse is at the various regimes of existed throughout history in Russia have worked successfully to instill a siege mentality amongst the populace in relation to the outside world. They made this worse by reinforcing a sense of the Messianism about Russia role in the world, they first incarnation of this was that they would be the protectors of true Christianity in the form of orthodoxy, they would save the world by protecting and and propagating the true faith from the heretical Catholics lands and the Muslim hordes. This carried over into Marxist leninism, and what they would confront the capitalist countries of the decadent West, and now they’re going to save the world from the American led Atlantic order. The result you have a soceity with highly distorted, one-sided, an extremely inflated sense of itself and it’s history that thinks it can do no wrong, which is enabled by whatever regime and power encourages this thinking. It’s made worse that Russia has a massive inferiority complex towards the West, which leads it to overcompensate when dealing with it. The other reason is that why this is narrative so seductive, and why Russians believe Putin’s lies is because they want to believe them, it allows them to absolve all responsibility for what’s happening as well as deny the awful state of the country is in, as well as avoid confronting the various horrible crimes that occurred in their country through its history. Putin is an embodiment of this desire, and he’s in many ways of product of Russian society, embodying its worst traits, he didn’t come out of a vacuum and if he didn’t come into existence, someone like him probably would have come around. The conditions of Russian society enabled someone like him to rise.They’re basically trying to avoid the painful soul-searching and reform that the Germans and the Japanese went through at the end of the second world war. My fear is that the west and Russia will be embroiled in a series of wars in which Russia is reduced in manpower, treasure, material, and power, and Russia will be so reduced that the Russian people will face a choice eventually. Russia will hit rock bottom, it can either change its ways and embrace a better future for itself, or continue down a path of self destruction. It’s how you deal with an addict, the addict must want the change and make a commitment to change to do so. Unfortunately in the meantime, a great deal of death and destruction will happen before the possibility of this coming to fruition.
Well said, but that was pretty long. Less is more, son.
The most notorious nonsense written about Russia is by our “Russian experts” like Ian. What an irony that he writes about Russian propaganda. Our own Western polling companies have consistently measured support for Putin for 20+ years that closely mirrors the election outcomes. Most especially those proactively used both domestically and in FP by the Democrats, like Penn, Schoen & Berland. We have to get these things right to sail the ship of state. So what strange data does Ian use? Making things up doesn’t help formulate policy, just helps Ian scratch a personal itch.