PUTIN PLAYS IT STRAIGHT
‘MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said Friday that gay
people have nothing to fear in Russia as long as they leave children alone.’ Washington Post 17/01/2014
Putin’s remarks seem to
have perplexed some commentators, why they ask make such inflammatory remarks
in the run up to the Sochi Olympics?
Now I don’t know whether Vladimir
Putin believes that anyone who is gay automatically harbours paedophile instincts and thus present an immediate threat to all children and young
people.[1] I've seen no evidence that he does not believe it. What I do know is that Putin
hates liberalism and liberal values. Putin shares with the Nazi’s, and indeed
with Islamists, a belief that liberalism and liberal values are some sort of
disease that can infect any society, bringing corruption and decadence in their
wake. It is a view shared by the Russian Orthodox Church which believes that in
Putin they have found their lord and saviour. It is in this context that his
remarks need to be understood.
As far as Putin is
concerned the games are in the bag anyhow, true there might be a few individual
athletes who withdraw, there might even be a few easily stifled protests, Putin doesn't give damn. As he sees it any such protest will only strengthen his hand
as the defender of Russia against decadent western values. It is also hard
to miss the pleasure that he takes in making such remarks with, as it were a straight face, tweaking the noses of his western liberal critics.
In espousing his disgust
with the post enlightenment western values Putin is following in a long Russian
tradition stretching back to the 19th Century Slavophils, who
propounded a mix of Russian exceptional-ism, Orthodox mysticism and the superiority of Russian ‘spiritual’ values. Solzhenitsyn embraced a variant on
his return to Russia after the collapse of communism. It was as great a
drag on Russian progress and development then as it is now.
Not that one ought to
dignify Putin’s thought process too much with the grandeur of a coherent
philosophy. Putin’s primary concern is always with power, its capture,
retention and expansion, if he can have a little fun at the expense of western
liberals in the process so much the better.
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/putin-gays-will-be-safe-at-olympics-if-they-leave-kids-alone/2014/01/17/e6f8c47e-7f7d-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html
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