The specifics of Russian identity

Sociologist Natalya Forerat in an interview with Novaya Gazeta. Europe":

“... In Russia, the identity [citizens] associated with the state is very strong and historically suppressed all other identities.

As a result, we get a political environment that functions in other laws in the heads of people. For example, Russians see the parliament in a completely different way [compared to residents of Western liberal democracies]. Not because they do not know the laws, and not because they have a low political culture - just society is different structured.

For the Russian inhabitant, parliament is not a place where representatives of different groups of the population agree on the rules of how they all get along. Rather, this is another part of the president’s team, which ideally should help him make the people live well.

They expect from the deputies not so much that they will defend the interests of their voters, how much that they will unite and find the only right and fair solution.

This, of course, is a somewhat exaggerated description. But the bottom line is that in Russia the identity associated with the state dominates any other identities. ”