(Russia) - 'The new National Security Concept .. the most primitive Soviet ideological vocabulary..'

'..We must take into account a long-standing tradition of blaming outsiders for Russia's woes.'

- Yegor Gaidar, 'The widespread image of the CIA's demonic powers in Russia is the mirror image of Washington's conviction..'


' "The new National Security Concept introduces the term 'alien ideals.' This is from the most primitive Soviet ideological vocabulary, which everyone has always laughed at," Kolesnikov wrote, suggesting that what the Kremlin is really trying to suppress are "universal human values" he said were "alien" to Putin and his allies.

..

History shows that in the past, he wrote, "the Russian state has collapsed not under the blows of external enemies, but as a result of the loss of trust in it on the part of its subjects." '

'But the Kremlin's new National Security Strategy is "the document of a country at war," according to Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

..

The 44-page document, Galeotti wrote in a July 5 article in The Moscow Times, is "a paranoid's charter."

In some ways, this is nothing new. Over almost 22 years in power as president or prime minister, Putin has very frequently used the specter of external threats to justify restrictive actions at home, critics say, and has repeatedly raised the prospect of a new catastrophic war.

..

Several observers have said that this focus, and the new National Security Strategy itself, seem deeply influenced by Nikolai Patrushev, the hard-line fellow former KGB officer and critic of the West who has been one of Putin's closest associates throughout his years in power -- the FSB chief from 1999 to 2008 and the secretary of the presidential Security Council since then.

"Patrushev wins," was the succinct way that Anton Barbashin, editorial director of the media outlet Riddle Russia, put it after reading the new National Security Strategy.

Several observers, and not just staunch critics of the Kremlin, suspect it is in fact people like Patrushev, not the country as a whole at all, that Putin and his allies are trying to protect by adopting the new document -- that it is less a national security strategy than a tactic aimed to keep them in power.

"The new National Security Concept introduces the term 'alien ideals.' This is from the most primitive Soviet ideological vocabulary, which everyone has always laughed at," Kolesnikov wrote, suggesting that what the Kremlin is really trying to suppress are "universal human values" he said were "alien" to Putin and his allies.

The policy is "not about the security of the country, but about the self-preservation technology of the narrow ruling clique," he wrote. "For them, 'unity of the people' equals the loyalty of the state-dependent population."

History Lesson

Others have pointed out that while accusing Western countries of trying to impose their ideals on Russians, the security strategy does that by asserting that the country's citizens are monolithically guided by the magnet of quite a different moral compass -- though there may be little evidence of that.

And Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, suggested that Putin and those close to him should practice what they preach.

The National Security Strategy "sets out fundamental Russian values including service to the fatherland and responsibility for its fate, high moral ideals, the priority of the spiritual over the material, fairness, and mutual assistance," Trenin wrote in a July 6 article in the newspaper Kommersant.

"It's understood that this is an ideal, but possibly the main problem with Russia today lies in the fact that its ruling elite shares these ideals only in rare cases and, according to opinion polls, possesses not even a minimum of moral authority to lead society in its path," Trenin added."

History shows that in the past, he wrote, "the Russian state has collapsed not under the blows of external enemies, but as a result of the loss of trust in it on the part of its subjects." '

- The Week In Russia: Strategy And Tactics -- Putin's 'Bleak' New Security Blueprint, July 9, 2021



Context

Could the West have saved Russia from itself? No.

'..I, for one, couldn’t imagine that Russia would flout international law to the point of annexing Crimea..'

'[Russia] may become a threat to the world. That is the worst thing that could happen to Russia.' - Yegor Gaidar


'Rule of law emerges from property rights.' - Karen Dawisha ("Putin's Kleptocracy - Who Owns Russia?")

'..Putin and the siloviki, like the Bourbons, have learned nothing and forgotten nothing..'

'..the collapse of the USSR was the luckiest event in the past half-century..'