Paul Goble
Staunton, Jan. 11 – During World War I and World War II, the children of the Russian and then the Soviet elite served in their country’s war efforts, the young men going into the military and the young women becoming nurses or even serving in the army itself. That was something that the elites saw as their duty and the population as just.
Now, in Putin’s Russia, on the other hand, virtually none of the children of the elite are serving any of the Russian units fighting in Ukraine or volunteering as nurses (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=63C0240C2C832). Instead, and still worse, children of Kremlin leaders and propagandists continue to travel abroad, often to places their parents call the enemy.
Not only are they doing so but they are doing so shamelessly, posting on social media selfies of themselves in various foreign locations, including the United State, Dubai, the Maldives and the Seychelles. Journalist Sergey Yezhov has assembled some of these for all to see (theins.ru/korrupciya/258406).
Such pictures and their ready availability to all Russians with access to the Internet will only stoke class resentment even among a population long accustomed to the idea that the elite will take care of its own members and their children and erode popular support for that elite and its rule.
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