In the Kremlin

Power finally broke away from reality

December 18, 2015 Andrey Kolesnikov

On Thursday, Putin held another “big” press conference at the end of the year. She lasted three and a half hours, during which Putin answered 39 questions. Nothing new in these answers sounded. The event, which was about 16 million rubles (as much as the preparation of the hall), the “daily magazine ” is commented by journalist Andrei Kolesnikov :

It was noteworthy at this press conference that Putin was unprepared for questions and, apparently, did not consider it necessary to prepare. His answers do not have any meaning at all. This is a complete distance of the first person of the state from real problems, from the understanding that the feedback between citizens and power is necessary, it was the most important thing we saw at his speech.

The detachment of reality was also visible in the answers related to the economy, in particular that Putin spoke about the appearance of signs of revitalization of business activity, industrial growth, and so on. He spoke common words, and if you start understanding them, it becomes clear that even, according to state statistics, they, to put it mildly, are not true.

He is also obviously ready to cover any manifestations of crime within the authorities. Everything will be denied, explained by general words, and so on. This demonstrated the answers to all the questions that concerned the Seagull, Turchak and the murder of Nemtsov. None of them contained anything specific, but Putin sent an obvious message that they would not take any measures, in any case, in the near future.

The fact that Putin recognized the presence of our military in the east of Ukraine is due to the fact that he does not consider it necessary to report to anyone for his actions. Russian citizens already knew that our military specialists were present in Ukraine. This is another sign of isolation from reality. Putin does not feel the need to hide anything, on the contrary, he flaunts it, thus shows his strength and independence.

Both yesterday’s press conference and the President’s message to the Federal Assembly showed that Putin, and possibly his elites, had a clear crisis of perception of reality. Perhaps the president looks at reality through the prism of reports of special services, but as a result he has a completely inadequate idea of ​​what is happening, from which the unpreparedness for new challenges follows.

In addition, at a press conference, nothing was said about the future, about what goals the president and the state set himself. What will happen at least next year? There is no goal -setting at all, we see only a situational reaction to the same situational external stimuli and nothing more.

Photo: Russia. Moscow. December 17, 2015. During the press conference of Russian President V. Putin at the Center for International Trade. Mikhail Japaridze/TASS