The end of a superpower – The collapse of the Soviet Union | DW Documentary
“This belief in the soviet union and russia’s unique authority
and that we are a special civilization, this compensates for the feelings of
dependence, poverty and humiliation that people have in their private lives,
what might seem strange for western.”
“Today Russia is showing its strength again, investing in new atomic weapons,
the military-industrial-complex established in soviet times is now
experiencing a renaissance, but the country as a whole is paying a
heavy price. The political leadership is making the mistake of believing that a 21st century superpower needs only to define itself militarily
and russia is only a superpower in military terms, not economically, not
financially, not technologically and not demographically.”
“..because historically china has always been and still is afraid that Russia can
easily switch sides and align itself with the West.”
“yet the opposite is true in Ukraine, where the majority of the country looks
to the west rather than the east, of all the former soviet republics Ukraine was probably best place to make a success of its independence.”
“The chechen wars were viewed very negatively by the wider population both
the first and the second around 55 to 65 percent of russians saw
these wars as unjust and felt it these wars as unjust and felt it
important that they should be ended as quickly as possible.
The journalist anna politkovskaya had reported for years on the brutality of
the chechen war and corruption at the upper levels of the russian army,
in October 2006 she was shot dead in front of her moscow apartment block.
Was her assassination ordered by political circles around the Kremlin or
was the chechen leadership responsible, despite trials and sentences handed down
the real masterminds were never identified the killing was seen in
Russia as a warning to critics of the regime, but if we look at the situation clearly
and objectively, there is really no serious opposition in Russia that could
pose major difficulties for the Kremlin or be considered a threat,
the principle of show strength and crush dissent..
the soviet citizen developed the skills required to survive in a repressive
state he learned to deceive the state to tolerate its arbitrary judgments to
feign loyalty towards it all while taking care of his own problems and
trying to survive in this hard and repressive environment.
The advent of Putin and his authoritarian system was no accident but
rather a continuation of the soviet regime.”