![]() The pyramid built by Ivan the Terrible had succeeded in awakening the imperialist even in Yeltsin, only a short-lived democrat as a Russian tsar, he sent tanks and bombers into Chechnya, dooming the Chechen people to death and suffering. Toward the end of his reign, Yeltsin unleashed a senseless war on to Chechnya when it decided to secede from the Russian Federation. His face turned into a heavy, motionless mask of impudent arrogance. The Pyramid of Power exacerbated Yeltsin’s worst traits: he became rude, a bully and an alcoholic. Judging by recent events, the idea of restoring the Russian Empire has entirely taken possession of Putin.Īlas, Yeltsin, who came to power on the crest of the wave of perestroika, did not destroy the pyramid’s medieval form he simply refurbished its surface: instead of gloomy Soviet concrete, it became colorful and was covered over with billboards advertising western goods. It shoots archaic, medieval vibrations into the ruler and his retinue, seeming to say: “you are the masters of a country whose integrity can only be maintained by violence and cruelty be as opaque as I am, as cruel and unpredictable, everything is allowed to you, you must call forth shock and awe in your population, the people must not understand you, but they must fear you.” Judging by recent events, the idea of restoring the Russian Empire has entirely taken possession of Putin The Pyramid of Power poisons the ruler with absolute authority. Having broken his promise, he clutches on to his chair with all his might. And it’s always been a single Russian ruler sitting at its peak: Pyotr I, Nicholas II, Stalin, Brezhnev, Andropov … Today, Putin has been sitting at its peak for more than 20 years. Our medieval pyramid has stood tall for all that time, its surface changing, but never its fundamental form. ![]() I consider this to be our country’s main tragedy. Paradoxically, the principle of Russian power hasn’t even remotely changed in the last five centuries. And a single person sits at the peak of this dark pyramid, a single person possessing absolute power and a right to all. The people should have no choice but to obey and worship it. The occupying power had to be strong, cruel, unpredictable and incomprehensible to the people. His friendship with the Golden Horde convinced him that the only way to rule the hugeness of Russia was by becoming an occupier of this enormous zone. With the help of his personal army – the oprichnina – he cruelly and bloodily divided the Russian state into power and people, friend and foe, and the gap between them became the deepest of moats. This pyramid was built by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century – an ambitious, brutal tsar overrun by paranoia and a great many other vices. But the fatal Ring of Russian Power was already on his finger and doing its insidious work an imperial monster began to take the place of this handsome, lively individual. And, back then, this man was “an individual pleasant in every respect”, as Nikolai Gogol wrote of his protagonist in Dead Souls: open to discussion, seeking to understand everyone, serious, but not devoid of humor or even the ability to make fun of himself.įurthermore, certain politicians, intellectuals, and political theorists who are now fierce opponents of Putin and his system, supported him, some of them even passing through the doors of his campaign headquarters to help him win the coming elections. In Russia, as everyone knows, people still believe in the words and appearances woven by their rulers. Vladimir Putin was put on the throne of Russian power by an ailing Boris Yeltsin in 1999. Even so, in Tolkien’s book, there’s a happy ending … The Ring of Power had taken total possession of him. ![]() And, by the will of the ring, his face suddenly begins to change, becoming evil and sinister. In the final film of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, when Frodo Baggins has to throw into the seething lava the cursed Ring of Power, the ring which has brought so much suffering and war to the inhabitants of Middle Earth, he suddenly decides to keep it for himself. There shall never again be peace with him. ![]() Now, Europe will have to deal, not with the former Putin, but the new Putin who has cast aside his mask of “business partnership” and “peaceful collaboration”. The monster had grown gradually, gaining strength from year to year, marinating in its own absolute authority, imperial aggression, hatred for western democracy, and malice fueled by the resentment engendered by the fall of the USSR. The world saw a monster – crazed in its desires and ruthless in its decisions. On 24 February, the armor of the “enlightened autocrat” that had housed Vladimir Putin for the previous 20 years cracked and fell to pieces.
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