Russia=USSR? It seems so, and we already know how that story ends…

Russia=USSR? It seems so, and we already know how that story ends…

It seems strange that Vladimir Putin, Russia`s president for almost two decades, is taking his country down in a route very similar to the previous Russian regime, people call it “Putinism” call it what you will, to me is almost the same as Russian as the old Czarist’s Russian Empire, or Stalin’s Soviet Empire, its trading people basic freedom right in exchange for supposed prosperity, it`s about becoming a counter balance to NATO forces, call it the EU or the USA; it’s that old “evil” empire thing we learned as kids all over again, Putin in his struggle to give Russia an identity has given back life to that “evil identity” in order to put again his country, but like in the old USSR, he is forgetting an important lesson, that even China learned a little ago, you can handle a country like an isolated island, look at Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea to see what can happen to you if you insist on isolating yourself form the rest of the world, whether you like it or not, globalization, with all its pros and cons is a process that if its well regulated it can work, neither Cuba, nor the USSR, nor Iran can progress that way, sooner or later they succumbed or opened their doors.    

The old USSR used satellite countries to secure its borders, nowadays Russia fronts a free borders initiative with its former soviet republics like Belarus, and he pushes countries like Ukraine to accepts its conditions and remain outside the EU, sadly Ukraine is torn between two powers, Russia and Occident, and Crimea is now in the negotiation table, Putin may argue that Crimea and its Russian people belong to his “empire” by historical an ethical reasons, denouncing ultra-nationalism in Ukraine, but what about the ultra-nationalism going on within Russia, forcing Putin to set the country apart from the Caucasus, if it’s a matter of historical and ethnical matters will Putin free de Caucasus? Of course not, it’s not about history or ethnicity, it’s about power and adding to Putin`s empire.               

For Russia sadly it’s a lot like the Who`s old song Won’t Get Fooled Again and Russian is meeting the new boss, same as the old boss, the dissidence is harshly repressed, and power and wealth concentrated on high classes and government officers, just like the old days, when the leaders of the Communist Parties lived in luxurious dachas, while common people lived in small apartments, and for Alexei Navalny, Eduard Limonov, and Khodorovsky, denouncing Putin`s corrupt empire is facing jail, just like in the old time, when the GREAT freedom fighter Andrei Sakharov was home arrested or my admirer writer Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn was sent to a gulag on Siberia.

Putin is reacting the Cold War, by acting like a counter balance super power against the USA, the problem, is that Russia is not in top economic position to face a power race, Putin strategy is a more psychological, than physical game, Sochi, the history most expensive Olympic games, like in Hitler’s time, or old communist times, was used as an excuse for displaying athletic power as a symbol of a healthy and influential nation, how old fashioned! Putin has nakedly exposed his brand of fascism, and a nation that is somehow in the verge of breaking up from the inside and using invasive politics in an almost dictatorial way, rather than muscle, Putin exposed the weakness of his country politics, just like in the old times, it’s just a matter of defeating Russia in the old fashion way, without shooting a single bullet, markets already are passing a heavy price to Russia, and it might be just a matter of time for oil prices to drop and put Putin empire of gas and oil out of the market, the same way the USSR came down decades ago, in a master chess movements, just like the old ones Russian chess master Garry Kasparov used to perform.