http://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_true_blasphemy_slavoj_zhizhek_on_pussy_riot
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> Back in 1905, Leon Trotsky characterized tsarist Russia as “a vicious
> combination of the Asian knout and the European stock market.” Does this
> designation not hold more and more also for the Russia of today?
No, Slavoj, no it doesn't. Not at all, as a matter of fact.
This nonsense about Asian values is bogus Orientalism masquerading as Leftwing critique. Because there is no such thing as the "Asian knout". China and Russia are complex developmental states, within which neoliberal and comprador elites, development-minded technocrats, and a literate, media-savvy transnational working-class are all locked in struggle.
-- DRR