Putin as a traditional (Burkean) conservative valuing law, order and stability positioned against a liberal US policy of favoring a new world order under its conception of (Lockean) liberalism manifesting as neoliberalism and neoconservatism.
What he really wants are stability, rules, and a global balance of power - traditional conservative ideas. He thinks the rest of the world needs to rein-in out-of-control US global activism.Russia Insider
Putin Just Made the Most Important Speech of His Career. The West Should Listen More Closely
Alexander Mercouris
See also
The National Interest
Putin's Play at Valdai — A Russian quest for stability?
James W. Carden
3 comments:
Putin has made a Devil's Deal with the Russian Orthodox Church. He understood that Russia needed an 'ideological foundation' to replace the old CP and the Church was the only one handy. But the Church has demanded that the state make Homophobia a 'legal institution' and that is a psycho-cultural Poison Pill in Russia's relations with the West, badly alienating many who would support his concept of 'reining in the US'. Because of his own cultural blinders, I'm not sure if Putin is conscious of that even now.
Agree that Putin is a conservative. He's no progressive hero. And he doesn't seem to have a good handle on economics.
However, Putin is sane, which is more than we can say for Western politicians at the moment.
It's possible to be a Burkean conservative and also a progressive reformer. Teddy Roosevelt is an example. He treated the oligarchs of his day like Putin is treating his today.
Putin has a pretty good handle on environmental economics, which he put a good deal of attention on since the economic base of Russia lies in its natural resources. In addition, the Russian flirtation with neoliberalism taught him all he needs to know about the failures of conventional Western economics. I suspect that his conclusion is that Russia and other emerging countries need to take a different approach that is tailored to their needs, as the US did when it was an emerging country in the 19th century having to deal with the dominance of the British Empire.
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