Dmitry Luchikhin
Anecdote: My husband comes home from work late at night drunk. Wife: Oh, what does it smell like women's perfume from you? ...Husband: Well dear, you are so smart. Come up with something yourself.
The anecdote is clearly not about Russia. She doesn't need it. The ability of the Russian mind to explain anything in the right perspective is literally mesmerizing. And it lies much deeper than any political delimitation begins.
The next wave of projections of Belarusian events onto Russia demonstrates this ability as clearly as never before.
Okay, in the end any meaningful explanation is too complicated. Here is an apricot, here is a tennis ball - are they similar? - similar. We will eat.
But you can then and completely on your fingers: In Belarus, now the people are against the government. In Russia, even during the most massive protests of the Bolotnaya era, the enemies of the people rebelled against the government. And many have already repented.
Therefore, any consequences of the Belarusian protests, even their defeat, will be completely different from those in Russia. Will not become a milestone on the way to strengthening power.
And their success can in no way become a model for domestic Russian imitation.
Belarusians can wholeheartedly love Russia and Russians, consider them brothers and sisters. But at the same time, they, by the majority, oppose the system of power, which is a feature of Russian uniqueness and specialness. In fact, they, willingly or unwillingly, oppose Russia as a special culture claiming at least a significant role in the world order. They profane her claims of success, devalue the possibility of the success of their protest.
The Russian mass population, in order to reproduce the logic of the Belarusian protest, must also act against Russia in fact. To oppose yourself, in your identification with the Russian peculiarity and uniqueness. And no prerequisites for this are yet visible.
Original is here.