To understand Vladimir Putin's Russia, you have to read the Russian philosopher Ivan Ilin (1883-1954). Or rather: to understand the influence of the Russian ultraorthodox monarchist nationalist thinker on the policies of the head of the Kremlin for almost a quarter of a century, you must read Propaganda. Vladimir Putin's weapon of war, by Elena Volochine (Otherwise, 424 pages, 22.50 euros). It is a masterful dive into “the only valid truth in Russia”that of the president, “the one that doesn’t exist”warns author Elena Volochine at the outset. A great reporter, videographer and director, the journalist was a correspondent in Moscow, notably for the international channel France 24, between 2012 and 2022, that is to say between the rise in tensions which led to the annexation of Crimea and the start of the Kremlin's “special military operation” in Ukraine, “this great war which does not speak its name” and which, de facto, forced Elena Voloshin to leave Russia. With hindsight, she analyzed the “parallel reality” gradually implemented over more than two decades in the minds of Russians by the authorities serving Vladimir Putin. With a mentor in their efforts to rebuild Russian greatness against the West: Ivan Iline.
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The juxtaposition of the philosopher's past writings and the president's current speeches is striking. The ideas are the same and, thanks to propaganda that has become omnipresent, have become current thinking in Russia. Driven out by the Bolsheviks, Ivan Iline prophesied a “national dictator” to revive the Russian Empire after the fall of communism. Having come to power with the support and hopes of liberals, Vladimir Putin gradually put this project into practice after the post-communist chaos of the 1990s. For the first, the “United Russia” is a concept in itself, “a strong, autonomous State, whose dictator must resist a so-called “global backstage””recalls Elena Voloshin. He had written: “They want to impose revolutions and wars on Russia. (…) The world is full of Russophobes and enemies of national Russia, who promise themselves any success from its collapse, humiliation and weakening. (…) One day, the Russian people, having completed their journey of the cross and their purification, will respond to them at the right hour with dignity, with what they deserve. »
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