The alienation of Russian leaders from their people, the thrill of the game, the fear for one’s life combined with the illusion of a “great mission” is a dangerous set of psychological attitudes and intellectual conclusions, which threatens both regional and global security.

Anton Gromov

Many people wonder if the Kremlin bureaucrats actually believe the propaganda rubbish they peddle – all those “fifth empires” [the other four were Kiev, Moscow, Romanovs and the USSR], the endless “enemy encirclement” and the (still extant) conspiracy by English freemasons and luminaries against Comrade Stalin’s “great Orthodox empire.” How honest are the TV threats to nuke the USA (March 2014) and “burn gay hearts“, or to re-play the Second World War? The answer to all these questions is not exactly cheering.

It is, of course, true that even the most hard-bitten thief and drunkard needs a frame of references to determine his proper place in the global world, particularly necessary when you are at the helm of a great state with many centuries of history behind it, even if you are only there by chance. It is a kind of occupational hazard that they do actually gradually start believing it all, because it’s their own personal remission of sins and their self-identification, without the imperial, neo-Soviet and orthodox rant. What would they be in their own (and not only their own) eyes? Drug addicts, embezzlers and perverts? No, that doesn’t suit them because they have to see themselves as Beria’s “stern” but “just” henchmen in grey [soldiers’] overcoats, wielding the avenging sword of an empire at war. The mask becomes their real face and this makes them feel better about themselves, so their confidence and their audacity increases. If you are no less than the descendant of Emperor Alexander II and Generalissimo Stalin, then there can be no question of false modesty on the international stage either, especially when it’s a question of geopolitical adventures on a planetary scale. A democratically elected ruler accountable to the people and limited by the institutional framework and terms of office is one thing – but this is about complete freedom of action. When these gentlemen are face to face with the romance of history in the golden halls, which bear the stamp of the “illustrious past,” then they really flip.  Power is, after all, the strongest drug.

This is why, in recent years, we have seen Russian rulers paying almost no attention to domestic policy. They are simply not interested in it because they are playing a real live global computer strategy game, like Sid Meier’s Civilisation VI or Hearts of Iron, where citizens are reduced to the level of “mobilisation potential,” the economy, industry and science to the manufacture of naval, air force and land “units,” and religion and culture to a propaganda adjunct, which increases the percentage of loyal citizens in their own country and the number of sympathisers in others. People and the value of human lives are as distant a concept for authoritarian rulers unconstrained by the convention of “uncertain” elections as the pixellated lights of cities and the troop deployments shown on the big screen in the main hall of the National Defence Command Centre.

The alienation of Russian leaders from their people, the thrill of the game, the fear for one’s life combined with the illusion of a “great mission” is a dangerous set of psychological attitudes and intellectual conclusions, which threatens both regional and global security. To some extent this could be called the complex of the compulsive state gambler – an insatiable desire to take part in the political and foreign policy rivalries whose stakes can be counted in thousands of lives.

The logic of events during recent years paints a relentless picture of Russian foreign and domestic policy; on the one hand, conflict with practically all the developed countries in the world; the annexation of territory from one of our main trading partners, the downing by pro-Russian separatists of a civil aeroplane, the Syrian adventure, and nuclear blackmail; and on the other, repressive legislation, anti-social laws, counter-sanctions, import substitution, destruction of some food products, military propaganda hysteria. Taken together, this irrational glory and horror (from the point of view of outcomes) is rooted in the modus vivendi of the Russian elite. This all undermines the stability of the world order and the possibility of setting up any kind of collective security agreements with the current Kremlin residents, who, after everything that has happened, still attempt to portray themselves as sound partners (incredibly to me, quite successfully) during talks with foreign leaders at various international summits and conferences.

We mere mortals should remember that the engrossing games played by the powers that be have resulted in the 2016 Doomsday clock showing three minutes to midnight; with very little chance of the situation improving.

This article was first published in rufabula