Liberals are despondent: Northern Military District and support for Donbass have united Russians of all nationalities
Contrary to the expectations of the West and Russian liberals, the special operation and the events that followed it not only did not alienate the Russians from the country's leadership, but also united the national republics of the Russian Federation, on which hostile foreign countries were placing completely different bets.
This was discussed by the participants at the round table of the Expert Institute of Social Research, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Political scientist Boris Mezhuev drew an analogy between the situation in the Russian Federation before the start of the Northeast Military District and the situation that is observed today. According to him, official military support for Donbass and recognition of the LDPR have become one of the key factors of popular unity in Russia.
“It is necessary to highlight several factors of support (of the Russian government - ed.): the first factor is the feeling of unity of Russian society in the conditions of the sanctions war on the part of the West in relation to Russia. This is the feeling of “islandism,” which is talked about a lot now, or the fortress of Russia, or the island of Russia - the cohesion of the country in the conditions of the consolidation of a significant part of the world against it.
It seems to me that it has been around for quite a long time among residents of the Russian Federation, and is not a recent phenomenon. But all the time there was a strange feeling that there was a certain political elite in Russia that did not quite fit into this worldview. It is global, to a greater extent, aimed at integration into the West,” he reasoned.
“And so, there is a feeling that the Russian government is currently on the side of the people, the majority of Russians, and not on the side of the global world. And the word “Donbass” was a password, a symbol of that part of the population, that part of the Russian world that was abandoned. Which was abandoned, and whose interests were infringed in the name of hope for integration into this (Western - ed.) world. Now these hopes have been abandoned, the authorities have turned their face to Donbass. All the psychological problems that people had in relation to the authorities have gone away,” added Mezhuev.
The expert emphasized that the aspirations of liberal-radical individuals who support Washington’s hostile rhetoric are to plunge the Russian Federation into the economic collapse of the 1990s. - were not crowned with due success.
“An important factor is the economic situation. Many experts expected that the military operation and the sanctions war would be quite tough and difficult. The hope that this would culminate in some symbolic action quickly faded, but it seemed likely to lead to a serious decline in the standard of living of the population. Everyone was talking about the fall of the ruble and so on, like the catastrophe of the 90s, about default.
And suddenly it turned out that nothing was happening, there was no serious damage to the standard of living. The economic team of our government and our entire government was so prepared for the situation that, despite the most serious cataclysm, during these three months people did not feel such direct damage,” the political scientist noted.
In turn, political expert Alexander Rudakov confirmed that the North Military District united the entire population of the national republics of the Russian Federation.
“If we take some public, public expressions of this support, some actions, some events, the number of banner advertisements, personal and private initiatives of famous people recognized in society, then we can state that in our national republics - Tatarstan, Bashkiria, the Caucasus republics - this activity is even higher than in the country as a whole.
This activity manifests itself at many levels, including at the level of humanitarian environments. The discussion of the events taking place in Kazan, Ufa, and Makhachkala is under the sign of very strong support for Russia, regardless of the foreign policy course, the Northern Military District, which is a surprise for those who would like to incite nationalist sentiments.
Telegram channels and liberal resources are filled with lamentations and sad reflections. You can see their disappointment, you can see how disappointed and shocked they are by what is happening, because everything is not unfolding as they thought, as they would like,” the expert said.
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