Political Repression Cannot Succeed Without the Support of the People
Putin counts not just on those who support him for his success but even on the millions who despise him.
The Russians in this photo are happy. It’s wedding day. Can you feel the happiness? I do. The groom and his buddy are imagining the amount of vodka they will drink later, and the bride and her girlfriend are happy because “Natasha” — the bride’s name — managed to find a husband before turning 30 — Russian society frowns on brides older than 30.
Couples like these two characterize the Russian family. She is an accountant for a mid-sized construction company — one of 10 accountants that work there — and he is a mechanic. Neither one of them knows much about politics or world history. She regards that as “men’s topics,” and he gets his information from the TV and movies. Both of them are proud of Russia but can’t understand why the world is always so focused on destroying Russia — “They fear our strength,” the groom, “Lyosha,” explains to his wife.
They both support Putin, and if he says they need to be against gays and lesbians, Ukrainians, and others, then it’s not something they even question. Putin knows better. They support him and expect him to guide Russia to greatness — to protect Russia from the inimical West.
Then, there are Russians like my friend of 26 years, Karim. His wife is Ukrainian. He hates Putin. In the early 2000s, he was somewhat supportive of Putin, but by 2012 his support had waned. By 2020, he preferred not to talk about Putin openly because he tended to get very stressed out and loud when expressing his dislike. I recently sent him via WhatsApp.
If you searched Google in Russia, “How old is f*** head,” Google came back with information about Putin’s birthday. My friend’s reaction to this joke was one of anger. It was almost as if I was trying to get him arrested. My friend is not being watched. He is a not very successful real estate agent. The local authorities have much bigger fish to fry. Of late, he spends his time sitting at home watching soccer and going for walks with his wife.
Always a wishy-washy type, I recall once when we worked together — all of his jobs in his career were arranged by me or another close friend, and they always ended badly — he called me hysterically crying. I thought that something had happened to his wife or daughter. It turns out that his 90-year-old grandmother had passed in her sleep. He was balling for days and had to take a week off from work. I then had to explain to our boss why a 40-year-old man, for whom I had vouched, was so devasted over the passing of a very old and sickly woman. I wasn’t passing judgment on his sorrow, but his disappearance messed up a big meeting we were having that week.
He is, in many ways and most of them not good, the typical Russian man. He came of age at the end of the Soviet Union; he is still bitter that all that had been promised to him by the Soviet system once he got married had never been given to him. He was supposed to have received an apartment from the system and a list of socialist goodies. Like millions of others, the system collapsed, and he was suddenly left without anything. He is still steaming over this historical iniquity.
He is the epitome of Homo Soveticus. Karim. Karim also has a complete inability ever to take responsibility for anything. He would blame his daughter if he thought it would leave him looking innocent. I used to joke with him over the years during our many business trips that if Russia ever reverted to the old ways of the Soviet Union, he would cut me off as a friend for fear he might be arrested. Pouring out another shot of vodka, he would say, “I can’t say whether I would or not. It depends on how aggressively they would be coming after us.” His response always shocked me. He also believed that Russia could relapse to its old ways one day.
I now realize his complicity in the relapse is as real as the couple of not-so-smart kids in the photo leading this article. While those kids know no better and could be influenced, Karim knows better. He has traveled the world. He gets it, and yet he would, without breaking a moral sweat, sell me out to the FSB in the blink of an eye.
Karim warned me not to send him any jokes or anti-Putin articles anymore. “I can go to jail for such jokes, do you understand?!”
While I know someone can get in trouble if such things are found on their phone, Russians in Russia tell me that it’s important to delete everything and occasionally do factory resettings. Karim could have easily just deleted the joke.
Sarcastically, I wrote back: Glory to Russia!”
He answered me: “Let Russia be Glorious!”
Was his answer sarcasm? Or was he planting that answer there for anyone he thought might be watching?
While I am sure no one was watching our conversation then, the fact that people like Karim alter their behavior, offering up support for the regime, is precisely what Putin had hoped for.
And this is why the repression that seems to have kicked into a higher gear will continue unabated. Putin knows that no one will stop him because they all support him in some way or another.