HAS THE, "MOTHER RUSSIA" OF OLD, RETURNED?

 

…Russia’s seat of power, the Russian Kremlin

 

It seems appropriate today to call Vladimir Putin, “Comrade Putin”….

Just look at what is happening today between the US and what we use to call “Mother Russia”.  The US stock market has been watching a convoy of 50 food trucks that is on the way from Russia to the war-torn section of Crimea.  So what’s the big deal with a convoy that is supposed to be under the direction of the International Red Cross taking food to a war-weary area in need of food and nutrition?

 

…The quickly re-painted Russian military trucks heading to the Crimea

Well, the word on the street is that these are military trucks that were quickly re-painted white, and are actually military vehicles full of war materials, not food and emergency supplies.  Even the Red Cross has said that they were originally going to be re-loaded into Red Cross trucks, but the Russians have since declared that that would not be necessary, and they are driving straight through without being inspected.

So, the gap between Russia and the free world could be widening one more time.

I had been working on a project in East Germany, not long after the Berlin Wall came down, and today is such a stark reminder of those times.

This is all following what some of the press are calling, “The beginning of the new war between the US and Russia.”  Or depending on how it’s considered, a war between Putin and Obama.

Just to spite his own people, ‘Comrade Putin’, has now ordered a ban on all imported food from the Western countries, specifically the United States.  Now, as far as the US is concerned, this is just a drop-in-the-bucket and only effects about ½ of ½ of 1% of the US GDP.

But for the Russian people, this ban keeps a significant portion of the food away from the Russian people and is a very large portion of what the Russians regularly purchase and consume. 

As has been the situation going back to the old USSR, the giant area that is today known as Russia, because of its location in the far north, the weather has never been conducive for growing all the nutritional needs of the Russian people.  Yes, Mother Russia has vast amounts of natural resources such as oil, natural gas, coal and rare minerals, but the cold tundra of the north has never been anything like the fertile lands in the US for growing massive amounts of the world’s needed food stuffs.

Apparently, President Vladimir Putin has such distain for President Barak Obama, that he ordered the ban on imports to retaliate against the Western countries that imposed economic sanctions against Russia after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine. More than anything that has happened this year,more than the latest crop of repressive laws passed by the Russian parliament and more than these latest sanctions against Russia, this latest food ban marks a new turning point for both Putin and Russia.

Some of the publications of Western Europe and many internet news outlets are saying that this is Russia declaring itself a country at war with the West.

The ban on all Western food has already led to major price hikes and there have already been runs on Russian supermarkets. Pictures were shown of markets in Moscow with bare shelves and the nation’s food prices were already rising at a disturbingly high rate, even before the ban.  Now the prices will obviously skyrocket and there will also be major shortages.

Those Russians older than 40 already have vivid recollections of these kinds of shortages that were a regular issue with the old Communist regime.   But, as with the old state propaganda, that machine is already working hard again to make people associate the looming hardships, not with the memories of the past failed Soviet economy, but back to the struggles of World War II.  Yes, they are actually trying to sell the old concept for thinking of their recent losses as heroic sacrifices being made for the war effort.  And yes, they are calling these sacrifices a Russian “war effort”.

This propaganda, drawing on their wealth of past deprivations of wartime, this may well prove successful for Putin with the vast majority of Russians who support him and this current 'war effort' idea.  At least it will probably work in the short run.

 

..One of Moscow’s many “Cafés”

In Putin’s speech to the Russian parliament in March, he had announced the annexation of Crimea.  But Putin also made reference to ,a “fifth column of national traitors who are in cahoots with the West”. With this new ban on imported foods, Putin has broken an uneasy, long-standing truce with the group he views with the most suspicion and disdain: Russia’s Café Society.

What you say?  A Russian Café Society?

Ok, stay with me here.

When Putin first came to power, it occurred during a period of prosperity that had hit Russia due to the demand from Western Europe for Russia’s many natural resources of energy.  This fortune-by-accident, allowed Putin to solidify his power quickly, and at the same time to institute his increased authoritarian rule in Russia. Remember, the Russians for decades were very used to this kind of government public authority, so it was a natural approach according to the past Russian society. 

As Putin was taking over the media and dismantling the nation’s electoral system, the country’s educated and newly moneyed classes were also discovering the pleasures of all of the new good foods, wines and liquors. Because of this comfortable attitude toward Putin’s growing authority, virtually anyone who had disposable income was willing to forfeit significant amounts of their freedom, if it coincided with gaining access to delicious foods and drinks in increasingly pleasing surroundings, i.e. was born: The Russian Café Society.

So, about 5 years ago, Moscow began offering a lot to even to the most discerning Russian ‘foodies’.  There were districts in all of the major Russian cities that had their café districts that you would have previously only seen in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark or the Netherlands.

In these new Russian cafés today, the locals are looking around and asking, “How much longer will these places be able to survive by serving their good foods from their inventive menus on their outdoor terraces?”

Putin is making it very clear that the existence of these Moscow eateries is inconceivable in the medieval warrior state into which Putin is currently developing. Obviously, Putin is aware of all this and his food ban communicates a simple message to the differently minded: “You no longer get to sit around in your cafes.”

But Putin isn’t stopping there.  He has made this very clear as he has ordered his Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to deal the real, final blow to the Café Society.  It has since been announced that there is now a ban on all WiFi access in Russia's public places, specifically all the Russian cafes.  Now, as it would in the US, that will definitely kill the Russian Café Society.

As one local Russian writer put it, “In between lamenting the disappearance of Italian mozzarella, Australian rib-eye, Finnish yogurt and even cheap American drumsticks, Putin is weakening his own government.”

Putin has more and more made it clear that he wants the “good ole days” of Russia’s past Soviet power to be returned.  It appears that he has decided that the old days are better than the good things that were coming from becoming a real part of the world community.

Yes, the West’s sanctions, of course, were increasingly designed in the hopes of effecting some kind of change in Putin's attitude toward the Crimea.  But so tightly closed is the Russian system that Putin has built, his new food ban is showing that it is an important part of Putin renouncing any pretense of becoming a part of the larger, modern world order.

Apparently, Putin is saying, “Viva the return of the Mother Russia of old!”

Stay tuned, this is only the beginning.

Copyright G.Ater  2014