Andrey Levkin. Russia, March Tao

Russia, March Tao
Andrey Levkin

Publication date: March 15, 2000

The story with the "black box" - acting. President - ends. And even, for example, the journalist of the Segodnya newspaper L. Radzikhovsky understood this. At the end of the first ten days of March, it suddenly occurred to Radzikhovsky that the elections on the 26th were the “last parade” of the leading Russian politicians of the previous flood. That is, the traditional political characters of the commedia dell'arte: Zyu, Zhirik, Grisha, Cap, Primus, etc. And then the pretentious Radzikhovsky said this: “New problems, new moods will come. A new political language and new people . ”

Where will they go? Especially people: in the first ten days of March, Mr. Titov suggested that Yavlinsky abandon thoughts about the Kingdom - thereby demonstrating his desire to be included in the “new people.” But, it seems, he won’t be included, because he turned out to be so intermediate that even Yavlinsky had to be asked. But this is particular.

Yes, and Radzikhovsky too, he’s like this here: since even he realized that everything has changed, it means that this idea has already entered society, and society, having realized that everything has changed, will now worry in an unusual way.

What is the essence of novelty and in what direction should we now live, think and suffer? Usually the following horrors are assumed to be behind Mr. Putin: strengthening of the special services, dictatorship and - the final omnipotence of the oligarchs. But here we must take into account that if these cases arise, it will be in a fundamentally different field.

The point is some new technology of power that Putin seems to be using. Considering his experience as a judoka, we can describe it precisely as the basic position of judo: the attacker - pull, the falling - push. In other words, any tactical interaction is decided in a pause, when the historical course of time (usually in tactical matters this takes a week, maybe two) will decide who is stronger, where the course of events will turn and what needs to be done, minimally struggling with the course of things , but only by directing it.

This type of pause is fundamentally different from Primakov’s pauses, which: a) always dragged on; b) always related to any decision of Primakov himself - that is, they did not at all relate to the problems of governing the state. More precisely: then it seemed that they did, but now it is clear that they did not.

It is significant here that judo psychology itself extends beyond specific combat interactions, moving into the sphere of strategic actions. Putin demonstrated an example of this by once speaking positively about NATO. After all, he then said something completely vague, but the reaction to his words was from the previous period of Soviet-Russian politics. Some immediately started saying that Putin decided to make Russia part of the Western world, and others that he had betrayed the interests of the Motherland.

Well, in fact, he did something completely different: he moved from a policy of oppositions, from the need to constantly choose one of two, to the recognition of both alternatives as the existing state of affairs. One you can live with without tormenting your political brain with the problem of choice. Which is reasonable, because, for example, they always talk about the same Westerners and isolationists in Russia, and one can already understand that there will never be any choice here, and these two views are simply always present with us.

That is, some new technology of power turns out to be almost a remake of the classic game “don’t say yes and no, don’t choose black and white.” And this is correct - how long can one be torn between contradictions, which, in fact, were invented so that the goal of life would be a constant painful choice between them.

Of course, I will not argue that Mr. Putin is actually committed to such a view of things. It seems so, but maybe it's just a temporary coincidence. But then it’s even more interesting: by all accounts, this logic is now quite constructive, so what will you have to come up with to defeat it?