My comment on Tony Brenton’s article Another martyr for democracy is the last thing Vladimir Putin needs in The Telegraph, 20 August 2020.
Lech Borkowski
21 Aug 2020 2:35PM
Western analyses of events and situation in Russia and elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc are formed on incorrect assumptions. While they are formally correct within the western logic, the regimes of the Eastern Bloc went far beyond the confines of that logic.
The so-called ‘velvet revolution’ of 1989-90 is viewed mistakenly as the collapse of Communism. This is an incorrect interpretation. The velvet transition to a simulated democracy was sign of dictatorship’s strength, not weakness. The strong, thorough control of the state enabled the transition to the next stage. The so-called ‘democratic opposition’ to Communism was the creation of Communist political technologists. The activists were recruited from among the most loyal members of the dictatorship.
The transition process was spread over many years, hence even greater confusion among western observers. Patient, detailed observation of the daily reality of the Eastern Bloc states reveals that those states continue to follow the Communist pattern, although they avoid using the Communist rhetoric and symbols. Arranging fake conflicts, political and otherwise is no problem. Corruption scandals? No problem.
If you want to catch a fly, you have two main options: (1) a sudden catching move, which is faster than fly’s reflexes, (2) a slow, patient series of incremental moves, which remain below the fly’s cognitive threshold. The first stage of Communism’s confrontation with the West, which ended in 1990, made the western fly too nervous. The same western fly post-1990 is much more agreeable and cooperating, and accepts the series of incremental moves slowly leading to its demise.
Opposition figures such as Navalny are projects of political technology run by the state. If necessary, they can be terminated by staging the activist’s death. This is no problem. We are talking about the state which runs on falsification for more than one hundred years already. The theatrical actions of the state against Navalny, which reinforce his public visibility and credibility in the West, serve the fake narrative. Putin and Navalny are players in the same team.
It is a bit like watching a fixed sport’s match. Those unaware cannot comprehend they may be watching a fake competition.
Western thinking is firmly frozen within the Orwellian framework, but there is more than one way to run a dictatorship. Western societies have not lived under a Communist dictatorship and they mostly refuse to comprehend the enormity of lies and the extraordinary capacity of the totalitarian state to generate fake narratives. No one expresses a surprise about a seemingly endless supply of dissidents in a state which can easily liquidate everyone.
Demonstrations and strikes can be easily arranged as well. If you look at Belarus these days, the so-called ‘opposition’ has no program. Their members come from privileged sectors of the Communist dictatorship and their interests are identical to those of Lukashenko.
The totalitarian state has the entire state apparatus at its disposal. The preferable method of liquidating someone who is truly inconvenient is a series of provocations masqueraded as entirely accidental events without external witnesses and without alerting the western media. An inconvenient person is liquidated before it becomes known to western audience.
My wife and I have a lot of personal experience with the subject matter.
@LechSBorkowski