‘Russia Today Very Much recalls the Last Dying Days of the USSR,’ Blogger Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 24 – Many Russian commentators are given to apocalyptic thinking, but it is useful when one of those who does lists his reasons. An anonymous blogger does so by drawing comparisons between the last years of the USSR and the most recent ones of Putin’s Russia (newsland.com/community/4765/content/rossiia-segodnia-ochen-napominaet-umiraiushchii-sssr/6454221).

            Below is his list:

·         “The Soviet Union got involved in Afghanistan without pragmatic goals and got bogged down. Putinism has gotten involved in Syria in the same way and with the same result.”

·         “The USSR lived on profits from oil and existed under sanctions: Russia exactly the same.

·         “The USSR sought to spread its influence in the world and forgive those who were starving their debts. Russia does the same.”

·         “The Soviet state media broadcast in foreign languages throughout the entire world, disseminating the Kremlin’s point of view.  Russia Today does just the same.”

·         “The USSR promoted ideological patriotism and opposed itself to the free world of developed countries, just as Putin’s Russia does.”

·         “The USSR drawing on all its strength produced arms in an attempt to frighten the entire world. And Putin’s Russia frightens the entire world with comic films about new miracle weapons.”

·         “The USSR tried to run its satellites and in the event of a revolution there introduced its forces to suppress it.  Putin’s Little Russia, which considers Belarus and Ukraine its own has been seeking to run things there and when in Kyiv a pro-Western, that is, anti-corruption, revolution occurred, it introduced its forces.”

·         “The USSR feared NATO and saw in the West enemies who were thought to be undermining its sacred foundations. Putin’s Little Russia is exactly the same.”

·         “In the USSR there was an irreplaceable leader who sat on the throne until death, while the gerontocracy and its children occupied all the good jobs and blocked all social lifts. Russia is going along the same road.”

·         “The USSR secretly dispatched throughout Africa its soldiers which fought there – just as Russia is doing.”

·         “In the last years of the USSR, targeted political repressions and arrests were carried out, just like in Putin’s Russia.”

·         “The economy of the USSR limped along because it had systemic problems, again like the Putin economy which has systemic problems and is incapable of development in the form it is in.”