Kirill Vselensky perches on a cornice in Moscow as Dima Balashov gets the shot. The 24-year-olds, risktakers known as rooftoppers, celebrate their feats on Instagram: @kirbase and @balashovenator.
National Geographic: Why Many Young Russians See a Hero in Putin
Twenty-five years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, they crave the stability that the nationalist president represents.
He doesn’t know where to take me when I meet him at the hotel by the train station, so we just start to walk down the dusty summer streets of Nizhniy Tagil, a sputtering industrial city on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains. His name is Sasha Makarevich, a 24-year-old cement worker, a blond ponytail falling down his back, a Confederate flag stitched onto his cutoff denim vest. “I thought it just meant independence,” he explains when I ask about it.
We walk past a small, one-story cube of a building covered with images of red Soviet stars and the orange-and-black St. George’s ribbon that holds imperial, Soviet, and Russian military medals. “We could go in here,” Sasha shrugs. “But it’s full of people who survived the Nineties.”
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WNU Editor: Yup .... this hits very close to home. A must read for those who want to understand today's Russia.
3 comments:
Well, easy to understand. Putin has a very well articulated speech, no mater we like his policy or not.
Thank you for sharing this article. Very intersting read. A couple of things stood out. 1.)The gentleman wearing the Confederate flag thinking it meant "freedom." If he's referring to the US Conferacy of the Civil War, no American believes this. In general, Americans HATE that aymbol and that part of our history. 2.)Putin has a high degree of support among those 18-24 who believe in their country. Let's just say Americans of this age group seem far more "nuanced."
At a minimum, it seems part of the way forward for the US would be doing all it can to eliminate sanctions against Russia. By DJT's choice of team members there may be some hope for movement on this area. In any event, I don't think such sanctions are sustainable anyway. As such, a proactive approach to getting them lifted seems prudent.
With that said I'm not sure how a reporter interviewing a few Russians could possibly understand the country. A number of foreign reporters try to interview a few Americans and think they are experts. Such "arm chair" Americans are often times most nauseating.
Jac,
I've noticed this too. While we are unable to articulate a message on pretty much anything, Mr. Putin's messages are straightforward and easy to grasp. For example, any Russian 3 or older can easily understand why Russia is involved militarily in Syria. In contrast, it's hard to grasp why America is involved there or is STILL in Iraq.
The Russian message of all their opposition is Jihadis is not only easy to convey but is plausible. As you state, the message is well articulated whereas the American message to the extent there actually is a coherent one is not well articulated.
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