Russia

[steve_bank]

I worked with a Russian immigrant enginer who came up under Soviet communism. He had absolutely no clue how our system worked and what rights meant.

He was upset over delays in getting his green card and thought he should have been able to just come in.

I have been wondering. Post Mao China regrouped, opened to the west, and made itself into a modern country.

Post collapse Russia had a brief period of free spech and press, then descended into what we see today. The same stagnant country that was the Soviet system. One cliche is that Russian culture is historically melancholy and given to alcholism, and it was long reptre dthey have a national health probem over alcohol.

I have no real idea what Russian culture is like. Russia went from an authoritarian monarchy to a revolution to a power struggle to Stalin. The intellectual middle class was decimated. Is Russia today for the majority a reflection of Russian communism?

I watched a show on a Russian famine around the 1920s 30s brought on mostly by collectivization. The Russians were utterly inept, unable to manage railroads. Corruption was a problem as was a lack of personal initiate. Nobody would take action outside of the political structure. Westerners came in and distributed food and may have saved the revolution.

I have always thought Chinese and Americans have similar qualities. Entrepreneurship andindividual creativity. Russia never got out of the starting blocks. Chinese leadership does seem to care about improving the lives of rs people.

Is the Russia we see a refection of traditional culture? Is it still the old imperial culture in a different form?

I wonder if the Russian majority actually understand the difference between Russia and the west.

 

[steve_bank]

It has always been obvious that while Russian leadership always rejected the west and ranted as if it is an enemy. Yet the upper caste in Russia lives in the best money can buy. Kids educated in the west.

Russia seems like the Soviet Union, and maybe the Soviet Union was a refelction of Russian culture.

Kremlin-connected children grew up in the very countries whose societies their parents claim to reject

Russian leaders denounce the West while their children live affluent lifestyles abroad. Meet the kids of the Kremlin.

www.cnn.com

NN)Theirs is a world of private jets, posh Parisian apartments, Austrian ski vacations and schooling at elite universities in London and New York.

Their parents own prime real estate on the most exclusive avenues of Europe's capitals. Their social media profiles are filled with designer dresses and red-carpet events. One young woman posted photos of her 22nd birthday, poolside at the Adriatic Sea villa of one of Putin's oligarchs.

Meet the kids of the Kremlin.
While their parents publicly rail against the West, their kids grow up in the very countries whose societies they claim to reject.


"It is obviously extreme hypocrisy," said Daniel Treisman, a professor specializing in Russian politics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"They may not even see a contradiction," Treisman said. "They believe that there's this competition between the US and Russia, but why should that affect their daughter's educational plans? Or where they have their chateaus?"

"They want to live in the West because the richest countries in the world are in the West. The amazing centers of culture are in the West," said Treisman. "But in addition, Western countries have a much more secure rule of law than Russia. So, if they're able to get a lot of their money into the West, they can feel more secure.

In 2016, a bill was introduced to the State Duma banning the education of minor children of most of Russia's officials in foreign universities, claiming domestic education would be key to becoming true patriots. The bill didn't pass.
Peskov's 24-year-old daughter from his second marriage, Elizaveta Peskova -- whose racy social media posts have often become the fodder of Russian and European tabloids -- hasn't shied away from limelight or controversy, like when she reportedly told a Russian TV outlet that she feels "better in the European environment" and called Russia's education system a "true hell."