Russia likes to be compared to the USSR. Being like an empire is one of its main ideologies. But between being and seeming is an irresistible chasm, writes Pavel Kazarin for "Crimea. Realities ".

Any talk about the annexation of the Crimea, Moscow reduces to the search for analogies. Speaks of Kosovo. Remembers Iraq. Thumbs in Libya. All the tools of the Kremlin are reduced time and again to the fact that "we are the same as you". Like, we do not differ from you, and if you can - then why should we not? A good illustration of how the empire looks like.

And this imitation is manifested in the most unexpected spheres.

The same Soviet Union lived with the self-awareness of an alternative to Western civilization. He did not just try to look like a sovereign - he tried to be. This involved not only engineering and military-industrial complex, space program and sports. The USSR had its own civilizational proposal and actively tried to promote it.

We can argue as much as we like about the quality of this proposal, but it was. "Friendship of Peoples", "internationalism", "planned economy", "state distribution", "free education" - the list can be continued for a long time, while there will be both supporters and opponents of these ideas. And for some, and there is no at all - it is difficult to protest against the abstract "friendship of peoples".

And who can outline the ideology of modern Russia? What is it? Which hashtags are followed?.

Traditional values? Orthodoxy? All these phantoms are easier to discard at once - they are suitable except for the exaltation of Natalia Poklonskaya. It is enough to look at the statistics of divorces, to be convinced of the falsity of the first. It is enough to check how many people make the sacrament to discover the fectiveness of the second. Traditional values ??have become a cover for homophobia, and the ROC is a way of capitalizing popular rituals.

In addition, both are constructs for the domestic market. For export it's not for sale. And it is no accident that Russian propaganda outwardly delivers a completely different product than that supplied by the USSR. Because the USSR promoted itself as a full-fledged alternative to the West - with all the ideological architecture in the bargain. And Russia is not such an alternative, therefore all its propaganda is not so much the advancement of its ideology as the destruction of a stranger.

Cynicism and deideologizirovannost - these are the two main exports of modern Russia. Its foreign media projects solve the problem of opposing the West. Blur the facts. Substitute Reality. They sow confidence that "there is no truth anywhere" and "all the same".

The moon is round. The moon is flat. The moon is made of Swiss cheese. The moon is an invention of Freemasons. Options are offered by hundreds and each of them pushes the truth to the side of the road. "White noise" is the one that disorients and demoralizes. In order to be cleaner, washing is not necessary: ??it is enough to soil a neighbor.

The USSR proposed an alternative. Russia only opposes another's truth. She does not offer a counter-conception, but throws in the media field a variety of options designed to bury the fact. Her task is not to convince everyone of her rightness, but to force her to doubt the rightness of her opponent. If the Soviet Union waged positional wars, Russia is betting on sabotage.

European ultra-right and ultra-fine understand this perfectly. Their ostentatious friendship with Moscow is not so much solidarity with the Kremlin as opposition to Brussels. And their embrace with Russia is only a situational anti-establishment bloc that ends after the election results are announced. Because they are not pro-Russian or anti-Russian politicians. They are anti-Brussel - passport of whatever country is in their pocket.

Moscow is still trying to take revenge for the defeat in the Cold War. She tries to destroy the old architecture and plunge the world into chaos. To then in this very chaos to win for themselves other starting positions. If the USSR sought to protect its status, Russia is trying to change its status. And for this she needs turbulence.

However, at some point it may turn out that the demons released at will are not necessarily manual. That in the food chain of "strong and cynical" Moscow is assigned the role of food base. That the pledge of well-fed and relatively reckless post-perestroika Russian activities is the same old architecture of relations that the Kremlin is trying to send into oblivion.

Sometimes you should be afraid of your desires.

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