No, Russia Will Never Change!
Op-Ed
The world remembers a number of extremely critical moments of escalation of tension between Russia, alias USSR, and the West in the early fifties and early sixties of the bygone century. Amazingly, Russia changed its attitude in the late eighties, becoming more benign in international affairs by means of dropping her habitual military threats against Europe and America and propagating that a human life is higher than any other widely accepted value in today’s world. But Russia would not be Russia if she maintained the peaceful status quo forever. Russia has gotten bored and tired with its role as a dove of peace: she now wants to reside on top of the world once again, using her nuclear capability to terrorize the globe.
Why? What has turned the tamed bear into a ferocious beast again? This is a very easy guess to make – Russia cannot and will not change her vital values that are in direct contradiction with the current world order. This is the way Russia is! Values like life, liberty, brotherhood, pursuit of happiness, rights, equality, integrity, consent and reliability are not in the veins of the Russian Empire and its people. Russians idealize values like autocracy, orthodoxy, power, clout, empire, royalty, authority and monocracy. Russians cannot physically be in step with the rest of the world. For survival, they need their own rhythm and pulsation – different from what the Mankind is equipping itself with nowadays.
I love Russians – they are among the most likable people in the world in person-to-person relations, but taken together as a mass, they make a bully who wants and is ready to attack the normalcy of life on the planet. Our good Russians have a terrible proclivity to entertain a “Putin.” They badly need the Putins in their life. They can’t do without at least one Putin. Putins are indispensable in Russia, and once they make a choice in favor of a Putin, they want to keep the Putin in place forever. Russians hate change. They suffer a propensity of getting attached to what they have and feeling comfortable with a continuous presence of a putinesque sovereign to rule them perennially. Putins are not simple leaders like regular prime ministers or presidents: Putins are gods in Russia – omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.
The Putin-wrapped Russia maintains that without the Russian presence, the world cannot go on - Après nous, le deluge! This is the historical Russian attitude which makes the rest of us shudder. And the ‘rest of us’ means the remaining part of our beautiful earth which might explode any time if the embittered Russians feel like pressing the button when cornered and isolated so much that the global blast occurs to them with no qualms to execute it. Isn’t it amazing that things have not changed in Mother Russia since the times of Ivan the Terrible? The tsars and communist bosses and contemporary leaders have all been tempered and forged in the same crucible, with the same badge and brand on the body.
Russia is chronically nonchalant to what the world thinks and does in general. Even if you catch them red-handed, they will defy the blame with a naïvely surprised expression on the face as if the criminal world is flagrantly desirous of tarnishing their impeccable reputation as an international player. As the saying has it, habits make second nature, and if this is true, then the hope that Russia might change any time soon is flimsy. Russia will not change. Russia likes herself and is sincerely proud of her historical image and deeds. Let the world change its values and attitudes because the world is wrong in dealing with Russia – this is how an average Russian would reply to an average global citizen should they meet in space and have a discourse on how Russia and the rest of the world should relate to each other. No, they are not being strong-headed. This is just the way they are, and they love it.
Nugzar B. Ruhadze