IIt’s been that way for years: everywhere in the world, as soon as a taxi driver learned that I was Russian, the reaction was the same: a big smile, a thumbs-up and a thunderous ” Cheese fries ! » This love of taxi drivers for Putin has always puzzled me. Only one thing was clear to me: we weren’t talking about the same Putin. It was impossible to love mine. And the taxi driver created a Putin in his image.
The reasons for hating my Poutine are clear. The KGB agent inaugurated his presidential career with the bloody sacrifice of his compatriots: to provide a pretext for the war in Chechnya, Muscovites perished in the explosion of their buildings. Everything continued in the same direction, until the aggression against Ukraine on 24 February. However, during all these years, other Putins have aroused the admiration of many people around the world.
Amid the chaos of the 1990s, the battered Russian population wished for order to finally return and the motherland to its knees ” rises “. She began to hope for the advent of a new ruler with an iron fist. Several generations of slaves identified with the greatness of their empire and Putin promised them to heal the national wounds: the time of chaos was over, Russia would regain its place at the head of the world.
The redeemer of his people
Thus was born the propaganda image of the all-powerful master, the redeemer of his people. The evil West wanted to exterminate us and only the good Tsar could save our “Russky Mir”, the “Russian world”. If the ” return “ of Crimea in the lap of Holy Russia did not repair the roads or bring running water and indoor toilets to the villages, he allowed the people to be proud of their Putin.
The key phrase of Putin’s ideology is “Russky Mir”but remember that the word “Mir” originally referred to the Russian village community. However, the mentality of the medieval village is still embedded in the psyche of large sections of the population of Russia. It was enough for someone to shout: “We brutalize ours! »so that all rush, brandishing pitchforks and clubs, without wondering if ” ours “ are right or wrong. This is how, for years, Putin’s propaganda has been shouting: “Our people are brutalized in Ukraine! »
The singularity of this “village mentality” also explains why so many Russians established abroad support Putin and his war. Physically, one resides in Berlin, Zurich or Larnaca, but mentally one lives in the “Russky Mir”. The famous actor Sergei Bodrov, a cult figure in Russia − in the blockbuster The Brother 2he plays the role of a good Russian mobster who leaves for the United States and kills Americans by the dozens −, clearly expressed it in an interview: “During the war, you cannot speak negatively about your family. Even if they are wrong. »
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