Kremlin announces launch of program to study Putinism
Russia is heading rapidly towards the Central Asian forms of state governance.
Now that books of Putin quotes (“Thus said Putin”, “100 and 1 quotes of V. V. Putin”) are available in bookstores throughout Russia, Putinism could also obtain the status of ideology and research direction, just like Marxism-Leninism and Maoism.
According to RBC news agency, Actual Comments, a publication founded by the pro-Kremlin Political Environment Center, has announced the launch of a series examining Putinism, endorsed by presidential aide Vladislav Surkov.
“Studying Putinism as a functioning ideology of everyday life with all of its social innovations and productive contradictions is an extremely useful initiative,” Putin’s aide Surkov told the news outlet.
According to him, Putinism is “a global political life hack and method of ruling that works well”.
The first issue of Putinism in Actual Comments presents an overview of articles dedicated to the Russian president and his policies published by a number of western news outlets. The list includes an article titled “Putin the Great”, which appeared in the Foreign Affairs magazine.
“It’s a bit of a pity that texts of foreign origin were chosen for the start. What to do – there is no prophet in his home country. Putinism, as paradoxical as it may seem, comes to us from the West. In a reflected and thus partially distorted light. But he is ours,” Surkov said in a comment on the selection.