Leonid Volkov: "Cold blitzkrieg"

“It’s amazing how accurately, in all the small details, Putin and his entourage reproduce the Cold War environment familiar to them from their youth; the space race and hysterical notes from the Foreign Ministry, propaganda and the Olympics, oil and the Middle East, targeted persecution of dissidents and spy mania.

It’s not surprising: then, in the late 70s/early 80s, during the years of Afghanistan and the construction of the Buran spaceship, today’s Kremlin elders were young and strong, for them the grass was greener, and the girls were more beautiful.

When a narrow group of people comes to power, formed in the same conditions at the same time, in a common cultural context, it is not surprising that it begins to carefully recreate this context that is comfortable for itself.”