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Does Putin want to be 'Stalin' of today's Russia?

Putin

Vladimir Putin was born in 1952 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The city has long been a city of the Russian aristocracy, centered around the Tsarist dynasty for 300 years. 

It's where the October Revolution has occurred! That's the place where it was organized under the leadership of Lenin's Bolshevik Party.

Although many countries around the world called the event a "revolution," it was in fact a military coup, in which a section of the Tsarist monarchy withdrew its allegiance to the Tsar and joined the Bolshevik Party.

The result was the fall of the Tsarist Empire. The Bolshevik Party came to power after the fall of the Tsar. However, Lelin did not stay in power for long. 

It is said that 85 members of the family of the monarchs were killed. But the world didn't know about that revolution for some years.

Born in that city, Vladimir Putin began his career in the KGB, Russia's most powerful intelligence service. He was employed in various important places at different ends of his career. He was working at the Soviet Consulate in East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. 

Then, when Soviet Russia collapsed, it became a separate state, and when Boris Yeltsin became president of Russia, Putin began his new career in close association with the Kremlin. 

His career began permanently in Moscow. He gradually started running towards power. In a very short time, he took over the presidency of Russia in 1999. 

He served as President of Russia from 1999 to 2006. At that time he was building Russia into a new nationalist consciousness. And it is this nationalist consciousness that has created its dictatorship in today's Russia.

Boris Yeltsin was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union, which is believed by a large part of the country's citizens. Boris Yeltsin broke up the Soviet Union and turned Russia into a weak state. One of the reasons for the break-up of the Soviet Union was: the Soviet Union's attempt to make a revolution by occupying Afghanistan. 

It is possible to establish socialism. As a result of such a failed occupation, the Afghan state has become a radical state today. The lives of Afghan citizens are captive to fundamentalism today.

Although there were more reasons behind the breakup of the Soviet Union. People's distrust of the Soviet system reached its peak. The economic crisis was intense. Unemployment was at an all-time high. Apart from military technology, there has been no development of technology that can be used by the masses. Only the party-led elites were enjoying all the benefits.

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Corruption was rampant. In the Soviet structure, Gorbachev was the general secretary of the Communist Party. The main power in the Soviet Union. 

With his hands very much on, the collapse of the Soviet Union was completed. At that time some of his historical theories appeared before the world, the two main ones being; Glasnost and Perestroika.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Boris Yeltsin government could not gain the trust of the people. Boris Yeltsin was primarily concerned with his personal life. 

As a result, Putin's path to empowerment was pretty much clear as the sky. That is why the people at first developed a strong relationship with Russian nationalist thoughts. 

Putin abandoned the internationalist thinking of the Communist Party of the past. New political parties were born under his leadership. About 80/90 percent of today's people in Russia are bound by this nationalist consciousness, which has re-inspired the Russian people with the idea of ​​nationalism. Almost all middle-aged people, now in their 70s or 80s, reminisce about the former Soviet Union.

Although at the time of the collapse of the Soviet state, they were all against the Soviet system. At the time of the birth of a new political party after leaving the Communist Party, they strongly supported Putin because of nationalist thinking. 

During the Soviet era, the ban on religious practice at the state level was lifted during Putin's rule. Russia's Orthodox Churches were reopened. 

Even in Lenin's time, Putin collected and buried the last of the monarchies who had been assassinated. He drafted a new constitution in Russia out of this support of the national consciousness. Later, Putin amended the basic aspects of the constitution to suit his needs. 

Such incidents are being carried out regularly by authoritarian governments around the world. Sometimes they even resort to their own controlled courts for all these changes.

Russia's constitution once stated that a president cannot serve more than twice, much like the United States. In the case of Russia, the rule is no longer in place, so in 2008 he handed over the presidency to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev after serving from 1999 to 2008. 

At that point, Putin stepped down and became Russia's prime minister. And the president nominates his subordinate prime minister. Although Medvedev served as president from 2008 to 2012, the real power always lied with Vladimir Putin.

Since 2012, Putin has been slowly reviving his position in world politics and Russia. In the world community, Russia is trying to regain its lost capabilities during the Soviet era. Russia, under Putin's leadership, continues to support all authoritarian governments in the world. 

In this case, the difference with the Soviet Union in the past is that they are supporting the puppet government dictatorship in the name of democracy. The situation is that Putin's government has sided with Assad in Syria, Libya, and even the recent military rule in Myanmar.

Currently, there is a state of war in Ukraine, Russia has gathered millions of troops on the border. For which the countries of Europe have become concerned. And in the last few years, Putin seems to be entering the Stalinist era. 

The international community fears that a similar situation currently exists in Russia, as it did in the days of Stalin when millions of people were killed by gulags or forced labor camps.

Alexei Navalny, Russia's main opposition leader, has been charged with felony criminal mischief. In order to escape that charge, he was sent to Germany for treatment on interim bail. Later that leader Alexei Navalny has been imprisoned. 

The leader, who is currently on a hunger strike in jail, feared he would be killed by poison. He has been on a hunger strike for the past 16 days, and if he is treated in Russia, there are some possibilities that he will be re-applied to the world.

An anti-Putin position has been noticed in world politics, especially with the empowerment of Joe Biden. Most recently, the United States imposed a new embargo on Putin. 

Russia has similarly imposed sanctions on the United States. It remains to be seen whether the Cold War will resume between the United States and Russia, which began with conflicting sanctions.

Russia, meanwhile, has added new weapons to its military, with the Putin government revealing some of its features in recent days. But at the moment there is a fear that if there is a sudden major change in Russia, like the one during Boris Yeltsin, or any sudden change, it will be a huge crisis for world politics. 

In this age of globalization, trade, and commerce all depend on world peace and stability. If there is an internal crisis of political power as big as Russia, the result will undoubtedly fall on all the countries of the world.


Jannatul Tazri Trisha
Alumni, Department of International Relations, Jahangirnagar University.
Email: trisha.jannat1112@gmail.com

Date: 2021-05-05
Cover image by Ignat Kushanrev on Unsplash

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