Russians Today Live in a Parallel Reality like the One They Inhabited in Soviet Times, Rogov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 30 – Russian elites and Russian masses are sinking ever deeper into a parallel reality, Kirill Rogov says; but that may not seem as problematic as it is because the parallel reality they are being driven to accept resembles nothing so much as the equivalent parallel reality that was part of Soviet life.

            In the current parallel reality, the Moscow commentator says, “not only do the Ukrainians bomb their cities while Russia is trying to save Ukrainian civilians, but the ruble is strengthening, stocks are rising in value, and the economy is working entirely properly” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=6246F50B202DD).

              Moreover, in it, Russian elites have rallied around the leader on the basis of patriotism, and the West is forced to “buy our gas with our own rubles.” If that vision of unreality seems familiar, it is because most Russians have experienced it before. It is the reality that the Soviet Union offered them.

            In the USSR, “the ruble was stronger than the dollar, the elites had no disagreement with the party line, and economic arrangements completely corresponded to the decisions of the Central Committee.”

            Today, everyone has the opportunity to believe in whatever part of this nonsense is closest to him, be it the supposed atrocities of the Ukrainian nationalists, the strength of the ruble and Russian stocks, and in the supposed unity of the elites around the national leader. But they can only do so by exiting reality and accepting again a parallel world.

            The ruble isn’t getting stronger. If no dollars can be purchased, for example, then exchange rates set by the Central Bank have no meaning except that Moscow is preventing Russians and Russian companies to store up value. “But the laws of gravity operate outside of dependence on the orders of President Putin.”

            Moreover, Russian stocks aren’t growing because the economy isn’t growing, and elites “are rallying around the leaders only in the fantasies of the leaders and in the songs of propagandists.” The elites act as they do only because they have no other idea of how to act or are afraid.

            Russia today is in “an exceptionally difficult place” and “no way out is going to be easy to find, Rogov says. But one thing is absolutely certain, the parallel reality that brought Russia to this point is not going to be the condition that provides us with any guide to escape from current problems.