Putin’s Russian Guardsmen Now Subjected to Daily ’15 Minutes of Hate’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 29 – In George Orwell’s classic novel of totalitarianism, 1984, the subjects of the state were subjected to “two minutes of hate” to keep them obedient to the regime in the face of supposed foreign threats. Now, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, members of his Russian Guard are subjected to “15 minutes of hate” about enemies both foreign and domestic.

            Indeed, according to Russian blogger Aleksandr Strygin who cites a longtime friend in the siloviki as his source, these mobilizing minutes are directed more at generating hatred toward domestic enemies than toward foreign ones and thus suggest the Kremlin is preparing for a civil war (aboutru.com/2017/05/41164/).

            According to his siloviki source, the blogger says, “every day in the Russian Guard are being conducted ’15 minutes of hatred’ – they are enemies, they want to dismember Russia, they want to sell out Russia to the West. [And] they receive money for this from Western special services and governments.”

            By such actions, Strygin says, “Putin is making out of normal law enforcement personnel zombie-haters who are ready to kill” those who are foolish enough to link themselves in any way to the opposition. Such attitudes, more than any among the opposition, are pushing Russia toward “a civil war.”