For Sergei Medvedev, who left Russia and now teaches at Charles University in Prague and the Free University of Riga, the difficulty of Russia's challenge to the West comes from the fact that Putin, for 20 years, rebuilt “
a Leviathan State, heir to Soviet totalitarianism
”, “
which crushed the buds of democracy
” that appeared after 1991.
The neo-totalitarian and imperial convulsion is all the more problematic, as it has also gripped a large part of Russian society, he warns.
Medvedev, who is the author of a powerful book on the Russian Leviathan State,
The Four Wars of Putin
(Buchet-Chastel), does not believe in an awakening of this society, which he describes as a "
scorched earth
“
Immobile
” and enslaved.
Read alsoPierre Servent: "Vladimir Putin risks being the second gravedigger of the Soviet heritage"
For him, the big difference with Ukraine comes from the fact that the latter thinks of itself as a nation whereas there is no "
Russian nation, no Russian nationalism
", "
just the convulsions of an empire which no longer have the means to remain so
”.
His new…
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