Political scientists are wondering which secret society Valery Solovey belongs to

As you know, the popular Russian political scientist Valery Solovey made a very remarkable admission in an interview with Ukrainian TV presenter Dmitry Gordon that he was an "associate member" of some powerful secret organization. Literally, this confession sounded like this:

“There are forces and individuals whose influence exceeds any force. In particular, they are stronger than the FSB, stronger than the Foreign Intelligence Service, stronger than the General Staff. These are international non-governmental organizations, let's call them like that. There are several such organizations in the world. I am an associate member of the East European branch of one of these organizations".

At the same time, Solovey noted that this organization has nothing to do with the famous secret orders - neither the Freemasons, nor the Templars, and in general to the occult, but membership in it allows him “to have integration into fairly wide circles of the establishment, and not only in Russia , but also in the European and North American part of the Ecumene".

In addition, Solovey noted that “the Russian leadership knows about the existence of this organization, it turned to its services at one time. It received these services. The Russian leadership knows that this organization is not only highly effective, but extremely dangerous. I am not kidding. And this organization provides me with some security guarantees. It cannot give me absolute guarantees, but my level of security and protection is quite high".

Well, in addition, according to him, there are several similar societies operating in the world, but “almost all of them are in conflict with the Kremlin”...

These statements caused some consternation in the Russian expert community, many simply twisted their fingers to their temples, believing that the political scientist, in an effort to maintain his popularity, does not shun even outright nonsense. However, there were also those who took the Solovey's statement seriously. For example, political scientist Grigory Golosov, who explained the motives of his colleague in his blog:

“When V. Solovey announces his membership in a powerful secret society, he, of course, knows that they will giggle at him in social networks. But he does not appeal to different clever people, but to a specific target audience, consisting of officials and "siloviki" (however, understand now what is the difference), proceeding from their inherent qualities: they are cowardly and conditionally superstitious. The second needs my explanation. Like anyone who feels that they owe their social and property status to a coincidence, they believe in luck and bad luck with an intensity unfamiliar to ordinary people beyond puberty. But this belief is always clouded by a not very clear understanding that "everything is more complicated", and if in relation to luck "complexity" is usually attributed to the amazing and unique properties of one's own nature, then to explain the bad luck it is necessary to involve some equally mysterious, but external factors. Secret societies, behind the scenes deciding the fate of the world, just fit. So in this audience, Solovey's remark, I think, found interested listeners and, I don't exclude, somehow really helped him..."

Political scientist Sergey Medvedev agreed with this interpretation:

Grigory Golosov rightly notes that Valery Solovy's anecdotal statement about belonging to some secret powerful organization is, of course, not addressed to the clever people of Facebook and not even to the conventional readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda and Arguments and Facts, whose world picture is permeated with "hidden springs", secret lodges and the conviction that "everything is not so simple" - without this knowledge, the average person simply cannot exist. It is addressed primarily to the so-called. the Russian elite and the siloviki, who, as Golosov notes, are cowardly and conditionally superstitious and take hints of belonging, say, to Masons, in all seriousness.

Indeed, my (extremely, however, limited) contacts with representatives of this world convinced me of their superstition, religiosity and belief in "luck." A lot of amulets, rituals, trips to the fortuneteller, as well as VIP pilgrimages to Athos, Sarov or Matrona. And this is not just Putin's era, but the original structure of Russian power not on a meritocratic basis, but on chance, luck and mystical closeness to the body of the sovereign. Whether in the era of Grozny, in the era of Stalin, or in the era of Putin, top officials are always one step away from unexpected mercy or from an equally unexpected execution - hence the cult of luck, thug "luck", and specific rituals.

It also reminds of the cult of duel and card games in the Russian nobility in the 19th century, as Lotman described it: realizing that fate plays with a person and they are not its masters, the nobles always tried to test it, "test" it for favor. By and large, this is a consequence of a resource system with a forceful distribution of benefits, a cult of power and slavish obedience. If a rational miscalculation of fate is the privilege of a free person, then superstition is the lot of a slave, like belief in secret forces that play with the world and man, and in this sense Solovey very accurately falls into his reference group, which hangs portraits of the leader on the wall, keeps there is an award weapon in the safe and believes in the extreme battle of the Freemasons with the Chekists ... "

Politician Leonid Gozman, however, is sure that Solovey's statement rather testifies to its inadequacy:

“Golosov suggested that Solovey’s fantastic statement about his belonging to a“ powerful secret organization ”was addressed to our superstitious elite living in a world of primitive prejudices. Those. this statement is recognized as a pragmatist.

With the fact that our bosses for the most part share the most primitive and ridiculous ideas about a world in which black magic, parapsychology, the general chipping of Bill Gates and the sinister designs of Soros coexist, I, of course, agree. But they, believing in secret orders, will not believe a person who openly declares belonging to one of them - this is not according to the rules, this is the behavior of an impostor.

It is very likely that he is right. But I would like to offer another explanation for the behavior of a respected political predictor, simpler and not at all intelligent - he has lost his mind. For many years, in his own words, he headed the department of psychological warfare or something like that at MGIMO. Can you imagine how delusional ideas about the world are born in the minds of "specialists" in this field? For many years, he tried to become someone in politics, he was a Stalinist, then a nationalist, then something else. Now, behold, he has become a liberal critic of Putin. All this does not pass without consequences. I do not exclude that Valery Dmitrievich believes, if not in everything, then in much of what he says. And about the secret order, and about the attempt to poison himself, and about the fact that Putin is reported about him every day. The next step is direct contact with space and control of the Universe..."

And economist Alexey Zakharov gave a simple but convincing example, indirectly confirming Golosov's version:

“An eyewitness told me this story. Early in the morning, three parishioners and a priest are driving in the car, returning from the Easter service. A woman at the wheel, dressed sternly, almost like a nun. Everyone took some alcohol after the end of Lent. The car is slowed down by a traffic cop. "Your documents... Yeah, so they drank... Well, now we will take away the rights". The woman turns to him: "Do you want to have a funeral service alive?" The traffic cop silently and in horror returns her license... "