[lbo-talk] Stephen Cohen interview on The Soviet Union, the U.S. and Russia

Chris Doss lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 29 10:41:56 PST 2007


Let me elaborate on my flippant dismissal below. :)

--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:


>
> --- joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > Interesting what he says about the ticking time
> bomb
> > (resulting from the
> > theft of state goods).
> >
> > Do you think it's true?
> >
> > Joanna
> >
>
> Really, not very. :)
>
>

I think Cohen is exaggerating greatly the extent of social dissatisfaction. There exists a broad societal consensus that the present situation is too be continued, while improvements are made within it (which is why Putin's approval ratings are twice that of his government -- Putin represents the general situation, the unsatisfactory progress being made in some areas being identified with the people around him). As a sign of this, on opinion polls about 40% of the population says that the best time in Russian history is in fact today (with the worst time being the 1990s). "Revolutionary" or "radical" sentiment is relatively slight, as one can see by the piss-poor performance of both the "liberals" and the ultra-nationalists (the "Russian March" quasifascist demonstration in Moscow had I think about 2000-5000 participants, which is microscopic in a megapolis of 10-13 million people. Demonstrators were outnumbered by police.))

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