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An article, heavily criticizing the Putin and Medvedev administrations of the last twenty years appeared on pravda.ru, a pro-Putin online newspaper and descendant of the USSR Pravda newspaper. The article is titled (in translation) Russia is destined to be at the head of the Slavic civilization, and allegedly written by Oleg Podgoretsky, a hardline anti-NATO, anti-Western commentator.
A couple highlights:
Bureaucracy has grown uncontrolled under the governments of the last twenty years. While most of the blame is to be put on the Medvedev administration, Putin was the one promising drastic civil service cuts in 2000 and 2002. Neither administration carried through: instead the number of bodies filling desks more than doubled in the past 20 years, draining the budget of necessary funds to increase the economic well-being of ordinary Russians.
"According to Rosstat, in 1999 the total number of officials in Russia reached 1 million 133 thousand people.
Already in March 2000Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to reduce their number by 10% and in April 2002, calling the state apparatus "cumbersome, clumsy and inefficient", instructed Prime Minister Kasyanov to develop a concept for administrative reform, which in the same year took the form of the federal program "Reforming the civil service of the Russian Federation" (2003-2005).
So what did it turn out to be? As a result of optimization, the number of ministries was reduced from 23 to 16 in 2004, but the total number of federal departments increased from 58 to 85. The total number of civil servants also increased — to 1 million 462 thousand, or by more than 25%. Over the next four years of Medvedev's presidency, the number of civil servants grew by more than 1 million. Regional and municipal authorities swelled by 2.25 and 2.07 times, respectively. No wonder the regions can't make ends meet. At the federal level, the number of civil servants increased 1.6 times. As a result of cuts and optimizations, according to the Ministry of Finance, there are currently 2.4 million civil servants in Russia."
These officials are useless parasites, and the same is true for the broader government:
Such an "army of eaters" needs not only to be fed, but also to be occupied with something. And the government is traditionally engaged in lawmaking, and the upper and lower houses of parliament churn out their legislative initiatives.
In 2020, the Medvedev government instructed to develop 230 draft laws. And all in about 250 working days a year. The speed of production of legislative semi-finished products is truly hypersonic. It is known that the higher the speed, the lower the quality, and vice versa. No wonder they say: measure seven times, cut one off. If you think that new laws are developed on the basis of studying and understanding world experience, then I will disappoint you. Everything is much simpler. The purpose of the laws is to introduce various types of requirements, restrictions and reporting, each of which justifies the need to increase the staffing table. Let me remind you that the same government planned to double GDP by this time.
Not only have the Putin and Medvedev administrations not fulfilled their promises, but they've created a system putting people to sleep:
" We live in a kind of" kingdom of crooked mirrors", a reality made up of" deception for good", hypocrisy, empty promises, exaggerations of one and understatements or silences of the other. The reality that is presented to us from TV screens is full of optimism and confidence in the correctness of the chosen path. Just remember the sessions of illusory reality on Channel One, where the president is given wishful thinking by the head of the FMBAVeronika Skvortsova, talking about miracle vaccines, and RDIF CEOKirill Dmitriev, striking the imagination of viewers with test systems for COVID-19 of unprecedented performance and accuracy. "
The solution lies in engaging with the old communist ideals again, but the European Union is much closer to some of these ideals, while Russia is a kleptocracy:
"Given the extent to which society is stratified by wealth, the immutability of the ruling class for twenty years, the proximity of business to power, and the intolerance of alternative opinion, I assume that we are much closer to what is called "kleptocracy."
Communist relations will come together with the economic concept of "unconditional basic income", which has long been seen as an inevitable state of evolution of the European social-capitalist model of development. The inevitability is due to the unprecedented pace of computerization and robotization and the subsequent release of labor resources.
...
The implementation of an unconditional basic income will automatically entail free education and health care for all those who are already present in the EU countries. In Russia, where instead of the European model, a very one-sided and ugly approximation to the American model of capitalism has been created, this can only be dreamed of."
I have no idea what to think of this article -- pravda.ru always has closely toed the official Russian propaganda line that all is well at the home front and beyond, apart from the Ukrainian nazis and the West-in-decline supporting them. Perhaps this was/is a (smart) hacking attack to influence public opinion in Russia, but the article is apparently already online since April 27th, and hasn't been removed since the first time I encountered it, about 6 hours ago.
Link to a translation of the original article (through Yandex) here. Original article (in Russian) here. For those interested in doing Russian/English translation of other Russian sites, link to Yandex' translation engine (far better than Google Translate) here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @05:42PM (4 children)
"Russia is destined to be at the head of the Slavic civilization"
Shoot for the stars, settle for being the head of Slavic civilization.
Even if the West is in decline, Russia is in serious decline. And that was before the current war.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 02 2022, @07:04PM
Comrade, have you not heard? It is not a "war" it is a "special operation".
Now if Ukraine takes the damage across the border into Russia, and several Russian cities are heavily damaged and uninhabitable, would it properly be called a "special operation" ?
While Republicans can get over Trump's sexual assaults, affairs, and vulgarity; they cannot get over Obama being black.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @07:40PM
"Russia is destined to be at the head of the Slavic civilization"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @09:08AM
Germany was in serious decline when they invaded Czechoslovakia, too, but by taking their industry and military production capacity he was able to build up his army enough to conquer most of Europe.
The areas of Ukraine that Russia is so desperate to take are where the heavy industry is, including military production. Putin wants the economic heart of Ukraine to power his war machine, just like it powered the Soviet Union. Every single accusation Putin and his cronies make turns out to be an admission. And what is his excuse for invading Ukraine? Nazis. And who's playbook is he reading from? He even plagiarized Hitler's Sudetenland speech a few weeks ago. Chutzpah
Putin lives in a bunker and blames the west for his troubles, but even Hitler wasn't all bad. He killed Hitler, after all. If we're lucky Putin will copy that as well.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 03 2022, @05:09PM
"Russia is destined to be at the head of the Slavic civilization"
Cool cool, any day now!
BTW, Kyiv is thattaway ------>
(Score: -1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @05:43PM (1 child)
Is that like jumbo shrimp? Military intelligence?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @10:53PM
Troll
Fucking moderators are humorless twits! Time to restrict downmodding!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 02 2022, @09:33PM (4 children)
In certain areas of the United States, you can find private clubs. They have various names, but locals generally refer to them as 'The Slovak Club'. I've never met a Russian in a Slovak club. Or, if I did meet a Russian there, he was claiming to be Polish, or Ukranian, Hungarian or Georgian, or something. It amuses me that in recent years, Russians are claiming to be one of us. In years past, those Russians were talking down to everyone who wasn't genuinely Russian. White Russian, Black Russian, Russian Caravan, Russian whatever - no, you're not exactly one of us. Don't call us, we'll call you.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:20AM (3 children)
You can't call that tea blend "Russian" any more, comrade. It is just "caravan" now. Perhaps some inwentive soul will give us Freedom Caravan blend.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 03 2022, @02:21AM (1 child)
Huh? Teas have their preferred pronouns now?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @11:59AM
Now you're catching on, comrade. Same as
French^W Freedom Fries.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:35PM
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday May 02 2022, @10:49PM (5 children)
Podgoretsky strikes me as the kind who would normally hold off on even the slightest public criticism of authorities he respects in an emergency situation. I imagine he'd be able to overlook a lot. But weakness and incompetence aren't some of those. Since it's illegal to just criticize Putin for the conduct of the war, my opinion is he's found something else innocuous on the surface (or at least legal) to criticize the government on.
His bosses at the pravda.ru site okayed this too (possibly with a "use at your own risk" disclaimer).
This might be the start of more widespread public criticism from this nationalist faction, first directed at various faults not related to the war, but later veering onto that subject. One doesn't have to be a pacifist or NATO sympathizer to be concerned at the Russian leadership handling of this war. This looks a lot like the Afghanistan war did. Nationalists will forgive a lot, but not weakness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @01:12AM (1 child)
Is this a signal that Putin will go sooner rather than later? Check out this academic analyst (with military experience), from last week,
https://twitter.com/ThreshedThought/status/1519944083233517571 [twitter.com]
He is saying 2-4 weeks and the RU army will collapse. Then, we’ll see a coup.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 03 2022, @08:42PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @02:28AM
What? You mean neo-nazis will fly a plane into the new World Trade building 15 or 20 years from now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @09:20AM
Putin's popular support isn't nearly as good as it's made out to be, but it is very difficult for people to organize effectively against a dictator, and even when they succeed it tends to be bloody. When his regime falls I expect things to get a lot worse before they can get any better, and that's without China 'liberating' Siberia. Putin isn't the only one with dreams of glory, but Xi seems the wiser of the two.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:01PM
Two prominent shareholders of pravda.ru are Sergey Veremeenko and Konstantin Kostin, both of which are, or were, deeply connected with the Putin administration (both are on the sanctions list). There's another connection, though, and that is that Kostin is considered to be the right-hand man of Vladislav Surkov [wikipedia.org].
Surkov is, or was, the brain behind Putin's system of "managed democracy". It appears that Surkov has been put under house arrest, last week -- accused of embezzling funds destined for the Donbass region: odd, as he had been fired from his role as advisor for Ukraine and Donbass in 2020.
There's more to it than just a semi-personal grudge to it, I think -- people connected to the inner circle are probably well aware of the consequences of barking up the wrong tree -- so I suppose they feel supported by other figures in the twilight zone. It is noticeable that either Deripaska or Abramovich made similar comments -- but about the security services being seriously overstaffed, and an unhealthy drain on the budget -- at a private business conference (report in Kommersant, Russia's main business newspaper -- and highly critical from the get-go: both Putin and Lavrov have been presented -- in opinion pieces -- as a kind of operette figures).
Noteworthy in that respect, I think, are the recent stories about the military demanding "stronger" action on Ukraine, requesting to no longer having to fight with their hands tied on their backs. These 'leaks' are spread by the official propaganda channels, and I doubt they have any real backing by the true military: they seem to have been very careful not to put their colleagues nor their most modern weaponry on the frontline, but instead send young conscripts, and USSR-era equipment into the fire.
As to your remark that the author might simply think he found a somewhat innocent subject to criticize Putin indirectly: read about the hubbub surrounding a 17-year old school pupil who dared to factually correct Putin [pravda.ru] during a history lecture: this went all up to the national level. That article, by the way, also ends with criticism against the local authorities (who are, no doubt, of United Russia signature).
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2022, @11:53PM
and the rule of thumb is, the people who failed everything, are destined to keep failing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by quietus on Wednesday May 04 2022, @07:33AM (5 children)
A depressing read. [meduza.io]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2022, @06:42PM (4 children)
The effectiveness of Russian propaganda
After watching the Afghanistan/Iraq wars, it seems that government propaganda is effective everywhere
And here, in this war too, US/NATO propaganda is way more effective than Russian propaganda
Too bad we can't get accurate reporting of events that isn't propaganda. The information war is indeed global
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 05 2022, @03:57AM (3 children)
It's more effective because Russia blew up their direct propaganda effectiveness by lying going into the war. Now they have to attack Ukraine/NATO propaganda indirectly, such as by complaining that it's propaganda.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2022, @04:28PM (2 children)
Uh huh, only the Americans tell the truth, right? Once again you prove our propaganda is much more effective than theirs. It's all good, we are expected to support the home team no matter what. There's no point in discussing it while you're all emotional
(Score: 2) by quietus on Friday May 06 2022, @05:37AM
No -- but at least they have a system [house.gov] to get to the truth, be it often after the facts. That's much better than the managed democracies of Russia and China.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 08 2022, @03:38AM
That happened to be true in this case! The US claimed Russia was about to invade. Russia claimed it wasn't. Then Russia invaded. The US did indeed tell the truth. It didn't take magic propaganda.
In the real world, we would call it an own goal. Russia did this not the US. I find it remarkable how you make excuses and assume that only magic US propaganda could possibly generate this outcome. Do you not have personal relationships? Do your relationships not suffer when you get caught lying? The reason the US has such a bad reputation in the first place was they did that themselves. The effects last years.
Why is it so unexpected to you that when Russia does the same that it experiences the same problems? Is Russia supposed to be coated in teflon? Everyone is just supposed to laugh off these lies? It's just those wacky Russians doing their thing?
Sorry, this isn't magic US propaganda, it's present day Russia burning its credibility in a huge bonfire.