Putin hysteria and lies : "The West is out to destroy us"
Andrei Kolesnikov :
"The arguments that should naturally come to mind—why the West would want to destroy Russia when it has built factories there, contributed to a thriving economy, made huge investments, exported goods there ranging from building materials to medicines, and opened Russia to the world—don’t work for the indoctrinated part of the population." ............................................................................................................................................................................ “No ruling group likes to admit that it can govern its people only by regarding and treating them as criminals,” he (George F. Kennan) wrote. “For this reason there is always a tendency to justify internal oppression by pointing to the menacing iniquity of the outside world.”
This was an astute view of the Soviet regime during the final years of Stalin’s dictatorship, but it equally captures late Putinism today. As Kennan continued, “The outside world must be portrayed, in these circumstances, as very iniquitous indeed—iniquitous to the point of the caricature.”
