As Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine continues, we look at the question of imperialism among the Russian opposition.
WATCH NEXT:
Why Losing Crimea Will Destroy Putin
https://youtu.be/N6CGbYQIVJs
The Riddle of Why Russians Don’t Protest
https://youtu.be/K4O3D7CfThA
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WATCH MORE:
Why All Russians Are Responsible for Putin’s War
https://youtu.be/d1pOahq4TCk
Putin: The Problem of Evil in Politics
https://youtu.be/diZQCY4Ird0
Why Putin Miscalculated So Badly In Ukraine
https://youtu.be/VBQWvZtCNHw
Why Russians Rejected Freedom (Gorbachev)
https://youtu.be/VEz5VsVLp4s
—
00:00 Imperialism & the Russian opposition
01:05 Russia’s bigness myth
02:10 Prejudice at work
04:38 Chechnya vs Ukraine
05:29 The “normal country’ myth
09:35 Beyond imperialism
source
WATCH NEXT:
Why Losing Crimea Will Destroy Putin
https://youtu.be/N6CGbYQIVJs
The Riddle of Why Russians Don't Protest
https://youtu.be/K4O3D7CfThA
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You can now support Vlad's work on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/vladvexler
Support Vlad via PayPal
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/vladvexler?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB
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WATCH MORE:
Why All Russians Are Responsible for Putin's War
https://youtu.be/d1pOahq4TCk
Putin: The Problem of Evil in Politics
https://youtu.be/diZQCY4Ird0
Why Putin Miscalculated So Badly In Ukraine
https://youtu.be/VBQWvZtCNHw
Why Russians Rejected Freedom (Gorbachev)
https://youtu.be/VEz5VsVLp4s
—
00:00 Imperialism & the Russian opposition
01:05 Russia's bigness myth
02:10 Prejudice at work
04:38 Chechnya vs Ukraine
05:29 The "normal country' myth
09:35 Beyond imperialism
I am sorry to be saying this again. I recently re-watched your post about Mr. Gorbachev. You never said Mr. Gorbachev. Yet you continue to say Mr. Putin. Words matter Mr. Vlad.
Простор can be translated as spaciousness I think
3:05 Porkkala naval base (1944-1956) was a semi-exclave like Kaliningrad. Control commission left Finland and blasphemy was a crime, so I wouldn't say mainland Finland was like the GDR in 1950.
I'm no fan of Great Man history, but it does seem that in eras when successful revolution it carried out in different countries, there tends to be a cohesive and intellectually mature intelligentsia with deeply reflective insight about their country in this historical moment, and visionary, critical imaginations with regards to where they want their country to go. It seems like the current situation in Russia is playing out in a context where for various reasons a mature, incisive, effective, thoroughly intellectual intelligentsia has failed to form, and we have an unripe, theoretically barren suggestion of one instead. If my sense of this is correct, such a group would be unprepared even if handed on a silver platter an unchecked mandate to make all the changes to Russian political economy they desired. They would instead tend to bungle the opportunity by repeating well-tread historical missteps, which would possibly get them on the wrong side of some of their neighbors again the process. I hope this isn't so or that there's a way out of it if it is
"What is this? Is this Alcoholics Anonymous?"
"No, this is Imperialists Anonymous. Please, come and meet us. Portugal there is our oldest living member; Portugal no longer owns Brazil and, you know what? Portugal is OK with that. They've retired now. They do a little fishing, play a little golf, their life is pretty good. There's Netherlands. Netherlands no longer owns Indonesia, and Netherlands is OK with that. How's the gardening, Netherlands? […] France no longer officially owns North Africa – they have the odd relapse, but, you know, they're making efforts in the right direction. We can all relate. They'll get there. So, here's a seat for you. Are you ready? Remember what we talked about …"
"Umm… My name is, … Russia. And I am … No! I refuse to say it! This is bullshit! I'm the victim of a conspiracy! I'm not the same as all these losers! I'm not going to …"
[omnes]: "Intervention!"
Russia been upping the rethoric about a potential world war 3. I personally think this is a information war campaign, attempting to scare the west into pressuring Ukraine to cancel it's counter offensive. The fact that it happens when Russia is holding the club for UNSC, aswell as other figures making similar claims within 2 days of each other is way to much of a coincident. That said, how do you think the Russian society responds to it and how would they respond to an actuall direct war with the west? How would it change the perception of the Russian regime domesticly?
Wtf, "простор" is not expand. This channel viewers are very stupid
The Russian Federation is the ‘rump’ of the Russian Imperial State. Until it is defeated and dismantled, it will continue to engage in military adventurism.
Brilliant video. Yesterday I posted Moscow street interview and I choose the title "We don't have a Putin problem. We have a Russians problem" and this video confirms that I was right.
It would be amazing if Russia "came in from the cold", but could democracy ever happen there? As soon as the green shoots of democracy start to sprout, or even whispers thereof, they're trampled upon by military boots. I imagine this is pretty much impossible while Putin is alive and at the helm of the Russian regime.
"The central concept of a German-dominated Grossraum (literally 'Great Area') was not unlike the idea behind the [Japanese] Co-prosperity sphere, where conventional Western notions of sovereignty were set aside in favour of an array of states and territories acknowledging the unique role of the imperial centre as the directing hand of the whole."
Richard Overy;
Blood and Ruins, The Last Imperial War 1931-1945, p.198.
Well, maybe it was not the last after all…
As a Russian, these make me reflect on my beliefs and implicit biases even though I am fully anti-putin, I too tend to fall towards the trap of I just want to live in a "normal" country. I feel like the cause of such magical thinking is probably the absence of experience of Russians living in a civic society and a functioning democracy to then understand its flaws. Like, yes, we know the western world and liberal democracies are not perfect, but our standards for "normality" are low in comparison to what we have, so we feel like we first need to get to that basic level, to then complete it and deal with first world problems. At the moment, we want to deal with out third world problems first. So asking Russians a question of "tell me specifically what country and system you would like to built on the ruins of post-putin Russia, is like asking a poor person, how they are going to deal with fluctuating finance market when they start investing after they become rich. We just don't know yet , its beyond our level of understanding and experience.
I don’t share the part where you implies the Russians fighting in the side of Ukraine also aren’t taking responsibility, that was such a disrespectful thing to say for people that are dying not only to protect Ukraine but also to free Russia from the Kremlin. They are braver than any of us people supporting outside the conflict.
Edit: also there are Russians partisans inside of Russia and if they aren’t taking any responsibility I don’t know what taking responsibility is.
Love your videos and I agree what he explained in this particular video except in those two instances
1:44 Простор как и Expanse не могут иметь положительную или отрицательную коннотацию потому что это не действие, а описание местности.
2:35 Если слова человека расходятся с его действиями такой человек зовётся лицемером. Так же, если человек выбирает мужчину, а не женщину только из за того что он мужчина, а она женщина, как описано в данном примере, он лицемер и на самом деле не верит в то что сам заявляет.
4:00 Про современный российский империализм говорят что он продукт путинской пропаганды не просто так, а потому что то те самые активные и пассивное согласные оправдывают себя искажённой картиной реальности которую создала как раз пропаганда. Если бы не существовало такой машины пропаганды я думаю у нас не было бы войны.
7:44 Тут я вообще перестал понимать что автор хочет сказать, но как я думаю от россиян требуется не просто построить работающую демократию, а сразу построить коммунизм где наверное вообще не надо будет умирать. Извините а вам не много нужно? Можно мы, пока от фашистской клептократической олигархии перейдем к ужасной и с гигантским количеством проблем западной демократии а потом уже подумаем как нам дальше жить?
Мне кажется что автору перед тем как загружать видео с недодуманными идеями стоит прочитать свой текст, выйти на улицу, потрогать траву, вернуться, и прочитать свой текст ещё раз.
What a propaganda !
Better look at your politicians, a facking fighters "for all good against all bad" !
Thanks for clarifying things out
I like colors on your background 
To even talk about this topic you have to know who is russians. Is there nation russians? Or more correctly – how russians forming from Merja, Mordva, Ersja, Tatars, Burjats and from hungred other real nations
9:33
To paraphaze Nevzorov – russia failed as a state with any political system. Imperialistic before WW1, then communist, then – democracy, now – neonazi state. That is why Ukraine wants russia to ceise to exist. And pro-Ukraine russians too. Google "Budanov's map of russia".
you're brilliant Vlad but I'm stunned at the scale of your intellectual pride. You think any powerful nation has transcended Imperialism? You seem to buy into American Exceptionalism. You constantly talk about your desire for Russia to Westernise into a liberal democracy then seem amazed that more traditional and politicised Russians feel genocidal about that. You talk about image/belief tension. I feel more and more strongly that you are not acting in harmony in relation to your own stated beliefs about what I would call the divine mystery of the individual and the universal inherent dignity of life. Watching you and rereading Tolstoy I'm just about convinced that it's simply impossible for most people to do politics in a way that brings more clarity and light than confusion and darkness. To fight evil anywhere but at your own door almost always spreads evil. I realise there are exceptions but this doesn't seem like one to me. If I was Ukrainian I'm sure I'd hate America no less than Putin.
соломенное чучело all over the place
A positive concept that transcends imperialism is core to French (l'universalisme républicain) and Spanish (hablar en cristiano), but by far, the English speaking world, even self labeled anti-imperialists, are extremely pro-imperialists in their action. Taking a stance for or against globalization is extremely imperialist. Only recognizing the sovereignty of peoples independently of when it arranges the USA is anti imperialist.
Libschizoid
Leaving aside the obvious differences between Russia and the UK, I can't help but feel that British progressives are also outsourcing politics when it comes to confronting their own colonial history. So often I hear opinions from UK leftists like 'no white people should be allowed to own land in South Africa,' 'the Afrikaaners should all leave SA,' or any number of critical comments about how screwed the USA's racial politics are. Or my mother, who took to lecturing her Canadian colleagues about how they had stolen land from Indigenous people, with no self awareness of the fact that the whole thing had been the UK's idea from the outset. All this is deeply unconstructive. If nothing else, if all the white ppl leave SA, won't they take their wealth with them? Indeed, that is what many are doing, relocating to Australia and depriving SA of talent and resources when the country so sorely needs it. This is a lazy opinion. But worse than being lazy, it shows a refusal to confront the fact that the UK is still an empire, that the UK is still committing colonial and neocolonial attrocities, that the UK has a huge racism problem, and that even within the borders of the UK, Wales, Scotland, and especially NI are still subject to imperialist governance. When will British (and particularly English) progressives begin to think about their own country in a non-imperialist way, that doesn't assume the UK to be fundamentally liberal and tolerant in comparison to all these other places? When will progressives initiate a dialogue with Englishness?
I, as a representative of the indigenous Finnish people of Russia (and a citizen of Russia), confirm the author’s theses, my experience of life, work with liberal media and politicians only confirms that the Russians do not want to repent of their crimes, they do not want to give the peoples of Russia more autonomy, or at least preserve their cultures and languages.
Therefore, I left for Finland and, together with my comrades-in-arms, am doing everything for the future de-colonization of Russia and the emergence of national states among the Finnish peoples in Russia.
So, yeah, Russian so-called liberals are the same cannibals as any other Russian!
They are incapable of repentance, change of mind, and confidential discussion of the problems of the peoples of Russia, they refuse to accept the idea that someone in Russia can have a different identity, religion and language. But most importantly, they do not want to take responsibility for their country, they just want Putin to die and they continue to consume Western goods.
So why should Russia change then? The history of repressions and terror will be repeated in the future again without repentance and change of mind. Repeat everything just like now, we see a repeat of the imperial fever among those who consider themselves "Russian"
because "russian" literally means "chauvinistic imperialism", as defined by every russian school book, every interpretation of the cultural "values", etc.
If Russia still exists in 20 years I'll be astonished. I'd say 10 countries would be an appropriate ammount, plus expansions for Georgia, Ukraine, Finland, the balkans, plus some more space to breathe for mongolia, some nice land for Japan and perhaps some nice oil fields for other countries. Greater moscow should be large enough whatever population is left after they comprehensively lose the Ukraine war.
Women make worse leaders than men, all evidence shows this.
Though as we live in a female centred social order, people are brain washed into thinking the opposite, as you've just proved.
Russians, a fake country, are actually Ukrainians who have forgotten they're Ukranian.
As Russia ceases to exist and Ukraine expands into Moscow they will began to learn the truth once again.
Finally someone points out that Putin is not getting as high support as it seems because a good portion of the Russian population don't feel like they will ever be heard anyways. I keep trying to tell everyone that, Putin has not had real majority support for years, just the majority of those still politically active and that number has been falling sharply since 2014(Number of those politically active).
As a Russian citizen I should say that only progressive, femenist (search Feminist Anti-War Resistance) LGBTQ+ and separatist opposition deserves full Western support. Soviet Union proclaimed left-wing ideology so the bulk of dissidents were right-leaning. They are so called "old Liberals". Now their idiological descendants (or even themself in their 60s and 70s) oppose Putin. When Latvian officials invited TV Rain employees to visit the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia they have refused.When Russia signed a treaty with any african country (Sierra Leone for example) about non-placement weapons in space, or when Lavrov visited Lesotho many "good russians" mocked this in Twitter and Telegram: "Sierra Leone and space weapons? Do they use giant slingshot to launch sattelites? Lol! Genius Vozhd Putin lost all his allies! Did foreign minister of Lesotho give Lavrov a commemorative loincloth?". Old Liberals mock BLM, gay rights, global warming, Gretha Tunberg, don't want to hear about independent Tatarstan or Sakha, they think they have honored small provincial towns like Riga and Tbilisi with their presence and feel offended when local taxi drivers don't understand Russian. In the 1980s old liberals (back then in their 20s and 30s) praised Solzhenitsyn, Reagan and Tatcher, in the 1990s they dreamed about "russian Pinochet" (oh boy, and now we have one!). For many of them De Gaulle always will be a person who killed poor Brasillach.
as a Brazilian I think that Brazilian and americans and russians are the same in the sense we love to screw our neighbors
tendency to waffle loses my focus.. like your glottal stops tho..
Self reflection and careful analysis of one's own cognitive biases is so important to forming a healthy attitude about the world. I applaud you Vlad that you have done this but I worry many Russians who haven't lived in the West (even my anti-war friends) for as long as you won't be able to grasp these concepts.
I remember saying to someone in a particular moment that they were more than their country and that they were free as a human being no matter what happened and for some reason it seemed to matter to them. There are forces in any of our countries that constantly defy the will of people and justice on behalf of them, we constantly get caught in the pain of these injustices and our ability to act around them as much as we fear fighting what defines us. My position is always that the things that don’t define us now, never defined us in the first place or the ways these things change may not represent what we actually believed and it is up to us individually and collectively to decide what we want to believe and where we stand now and how we want to rally and act around what we believe. Individual acts, even developed independently can collectively change reality.
Really good video! I can disagree with you on one thing. And it builds around your burning house example.
Let's imagine that your house was set on fire by your neighbour. If you are living in a state of law with functioning institutions you will just go to the police. It will punish your neighbour and you will be safe. But what if police do nothing? Well, you have two strategies: to escape and move to another place or become so powerful that the neighbor will not threaten you.
Well, it works for people but the whole country can't move away from neighbours. The second option – to become a strong neighbour – is a way of brute force. It looks necessary for Ukraine now but force alone can't solve a problem in a sustainable long-distance way.
The formula that you called a bad option (Russia without Putin, re-elections, freedom of press, political competition) is the only option to formulate a non-imperialistic image of future for Russia. Because now there is no access to the wide politically passive part of Russian society. Future will not happen if there is no discussion about it. Transformation of people's minds isn't a fast process but it cannot even be started in the Russian masses today. So, first things first. And the first thing is a political reorganisation of Russia. The question is, is this scenario possible?
I don't think Mr. Putin even likes his own people. Else he would not send them to die for land that is never going to truly belong to Russia.
IMO, You are quite correct of dividing belief from image. Lenin and Khrustshov proclaimed anti-imperialism but at of the day the Russian mentality is imperialist. Like USA is too, in another version. It is even more apparent in how Great Britain and France insist of greatness in spite of everything.
You can ask why Russian, American, Brits and French are so desperately clinging to the image of greatness. It is the psyche in national mechanism I call "subtitutional greatness." I'm well aware of daily misery – polluted air and water, the language isn't the international medium of conversiation, humiliating military and political defeat etc. – just then it become vital to insist on greatness to remedy a national mental feeling of defeat. "I live a lousy everyday but my consolation is that I'm member of a great nation!"
You can also call it a feel of revenge against a necessary national hubris. It is much of the same reaction making Arabs intractable enemies of the West in general and Israel in special, it is more than the existence of the state of Israel. "I live in dirt and poverty but consolation is that I'm a part of the epitome of civilization by power of the one true faith. That the West is superior is an aberration of history which must be mended sooner the better! Why is world's financial center New York and London and not Bagdad? Why is the capital of intelligence Harvard and Oxford and not El-Azhar? Why is fashion created in Paris and Milano and not in Damascus?" The existence of the Israel isn't a would in itself, it is salt in an already bleeding wound.
Many pro Russians and Russians (not all russians) believng that the West is the main aggressor, but in reality throughout Russian history Russia is the main aggressor they act like they the main victim but in reality they are the villain after the collapse of the Russian Empire, from 1920-1921 they invaded the independent Caucasian Nations then in 1939 they invaded Poland and Finland then in 1940 they invaded the Baltic States who where recognized as independent from 1918, and then during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 they invaded them, and in 1968 they invaded the former Czechoslovakia along with their puppet WARSAW PACT, and the last invasion from the Soviet Union is from 1979 when they try to invade Afghanistan that lasted till 1989, after the collapse of the USSR and the founding of the Russian Federation, in 2008 they invade Georgia and occupied 20% of land, then in 2014 they invaded Ukraine and occupies Crimea then in 2022 they invade the whole Ukraine…………
Now that you have identified the problem. What are the obstacles stopping Russians from taking the next step? Once identified, these obstacles have to be strategically overcome in order to get from the current state, to the future state identified in this video.
Excellent explanation of the nature of the Russian imperialism.
How can anyone follow Putin as a leader? If you go the way of toughness you will end up with someone like prigozin and he wouldn’t be able to fill Putins shoes. If you go the way of change and democracy then you have a tiny chance of success. I don’t envy anyone taking that risk, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to Russia.
Really funny, that it actually resonates with me. Whenever I discuss what should be done after the day X, it gets shot down by the people I talk about it with. Like, always stopped at deposing the current ruler, stopping the war, never a "now what". I even statrted to think that's wrong with me, but now… just thanks, man
Dude looked like he got an orgasm while mockingly speaking about the "normal country" the russian opposition wants to live in. Yes we get it, you don't want Russia to be a normal country and now you made another "muh Russian opposition bad" video the Eastern European ethno-nationalists in your comments can circlejerk to. Btw, the numbers you cite are unsourced bs.
the russian identity is compromised since Feb 2022.
If one wants to remain in the "people" category, they have to come up with another identity.
whatever "russian" is a danger
I'm russian. 30 millions of us are against Putin, the dictatorship and the war. You don't understand how many problems in our lifes in Russia we have because of our political position. You're not right. We just want to make Russia an ordinary Europian country like Germany, France or Spain. We want a democracy, like in countries of EU, in UK, in US. No one of us wants the empire. Russians, who like empires and wars, also like the war in Ukraine, and they are supporting Putin now.
Much of your introductory thesis about attitudes to an historical imperial past applies to Britain almost exactly. Even after the post war withdrawal from India and east Asia, it was possible to leverage imperial nostalgia to justify interventions around the world. Only a terminal decline in Britain's power and status has rendered further such adventures unlikely. But we are left with an unspoken sense that the natural
order of things includes British dominance. And that is poisonous.
That’s why in Ukraine , we say “there are no good russians” and according to your statements , I do not see you as the russian , even if this video was in russian. If that makes sense. They are either supporting or complaisant about war. And they give a damn only about themselves. Period.
Umm.. I hate to be that guy, but it's not like imperialism is a quaint hallmark of a bygone era. It's alive and well, today, in much of the world's prevailing powers.