Like under Ivan the Terrible. A hostile contour has formed around Russia

Dmitry Mikhailichenko, political analyst

The authorities, as expected, have taken a course towards draining not only active civil dissent, but also public criticism. There has been a lot of talk over the past few weeks about blocking YouTube, but this social network provides a social exchange in Russia and is significant in terms of entertainment content, mostly non-political. The issue of blocking YouTube has many other nuances that make the authorities postpone this decision.

Meanwhile, we see how the critical discourse is rapidly “moving” beyond the borders of Russia and from there it expresses criticism of the Russian leadership and the course chosen by it even more prominently and on a large scale. The expansion of disciplinary and disciplinary practices for applying the law on foreign agents here looks like an indirect alternative to blocking YouTube.

Be that as it may, it can already be stated that an alternative contour of Russia has been formed in Eastern Europe: analogies with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the time of Ivan the Terrible are quite appropriate here. In the period of the late Middle Ages, let me remind you, Lithuania claimed to be an alternative center for the unification of Russian lands, but after the strengthening of Muscovy, it went to the West and united with Poland (the Commonwealth).

Opposition to Ivan the Terrible often fled to Lithuania and fought against him from there (for example, Prince Andrei Kurbsky). Then they were supported by the Vatican, and now by Washington. As you know, then it came to the Time of Troubles, which was overcome through titanic efforts (People's Militia).

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, one can clearly say: an alternative contour to the current Russia was formed and began to develop not only actively, but also rapidly. It includes the Baltic states, Poland, Georgia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and a number of other countries. In fact, there was an actualization not only of imperial Russia, but also of the very anti-Russia, which is also consolidating and acquiring its own institutions, approaches and ideology. One can talk a lot about the plan of pressure on Russia along the perimeter of its borders, but it is obvious that there are a lot of points of tension around Russia (Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Baltic States, Poland and Finland going to NATO).

Such a construction makes the very concept of the unification of the Russian world problematic - rather, here we can talk about a split. But the main and most dangerous thing is that such a construction cannot but be confrontational. The dialectic of confrontational relations between Russia and conditional anti-Russia now looks like the main condition for the existence of both. And there are reasons to say that this confrontational construction will be sustainable. At the very least, there are very few subjective forces interested in dismantling this dialectical construction.

Especially for the channel "Kremlin BezTower"