Friday, January 17, 2025

Despite What Kremlin Wants People to Believe, Millions of Russians Oppose the Ruling Minority in Moscow, Podrabinek Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 14 – Because Russia has no elections, honest sociology or a free press and because of government repression which keeps many from acting on their feelings, no on knows precisely how many Russians are opposed to Putin’s autocracy, Aleksandr Podrabinek, a former Soviet dissident and now rights activist in Moscow says.
    But anyone who walks the streets of a Russian city and looks beyond the propaganda posters can see that there are millions who oppose the regime which has guns and power but represents only a tiny minority, he continues (svoboda.org/a/obraz-gibloy-rossii-aleksandr-podrabinek-o-tvortsah-illyuziy/33263349.html).
    Presenting the opposition as a tiny minority of marginal figures is a time-tested method of Russian rulers who know that the best way to keep people from acting on their feelings is to atomize society and convince people that no one shares the views that they have, Podrabinek says.
    Worse by atomizing society for that purpose, the Putin regime like its predecessors has convinced Russian émigré opponents of the regime that they know the situation inside Russia better than do those who actually live there and that there is little or no chance for Russia to become a free and democratic country.
    By arguing that position, the émigré opposition in effect serves those it says it is fighting, something, Podrabinek says, will become ever more obvious when the Putin regime is overthrown and the archives of its security services are opened.  


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