Gwynne Dyer. Contributed Photo by HandOut /HandOutArticle contentThere’s a lot of performative militarism in Russia at the moment, which is unsurprising given that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still stalled halfway through the fifth year of the war. The style is more Mussolini than Hitler, however, and the effect is more tacky than terrifying.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentFor example, pro-war comedian Mikhail Galustyan recently pitched his idea for a reality TV show called ‘Battle of the Drones’ to President Vladimir Putin at the ‘Everything for Victory!’ forum in Moscow. School kids, veterans and celebrities would play at being drone pilots in the show, presumably killing fake Ukrainians.Article contentArticle contentArticle content“This is an opportunity to explore the topic and make it understandable, engaging and popular,” said Galustyan, and Putin approved it on the spot. “Good luck,” he said. “Propaganda is an extremely useful thing.” In the country where the first Potemkin Village was built, it feels like a perfectly comfortable conversation.Article contentThe original Potemkin villages, according to legend, were built by Russian statesman Grigoriy Potemkin to influence his former lover, Empress Catherine the Great. She was visiting newly conquered Crimea, and he had entire villages – or rather, wood and plaster facades of whole villages – built along a Crimean river to impress her.Article contentEach night, say some versions of the legend, the fake villages were dismantled and moved downstream to impress the empress again the following day. Potemkin probably just had some houses painted and repaired to fool Catherine, but it grew into legend because it resonated with something deep in the historical experience of the Russians.Article contentArticle contentWhich brings us, naturally enough, to the topic of Russia’s nuclear weapons, and to the fact that Putin warns the rest of the world several times a year that he has them and that, in certain circumstances, he would be willing to use them even in a first strike.Article contentWhich circumstances? He doesn’t say, but the context suggests he is warning everybody that he might go crazy and go nuclear if the Russian front in Ukraine collapses and the Ukrainian army starts to retake the occupied parts of Ukraine. It’s the old ‘madman strategy’ revisited, but none the worse for wear.Article contentOn the other hand, Putin may have a problem we are not aware of: the dependability of Russian nuclear weapons. It’s now 35 years since the collapse of the old Soviet Union, and standards of maintenance in most areas are far below what they were in the old days.Article contentNuclear weapons take a lot of maintenance, and Russia faces a particular problem in this regard: the culture in the military, where for many years officers have been stealing and selling everything that isn’t nailed down.
GWYNNE DYER: Russia: Home of the Potemkin Nuclear Weapons?
