Lying is becoming a daily practice, and its normalization leads to further escalation, writes political scientist Alexei Kolesnikov in an article for the Neue Züricher Zeitung, comparing the current Russian political system with the late Soviet Union.
In his estimation, "lies and concealment", together with "subordination and punishment", remain one of the main formulas for the existence of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. This is how the Soviet system functioned, and similar mechanisms, Kolesnikov believes, are returning today in Russia.
An indicative example is the reports of a possible outbreak of an epidemic after the death of an employee of the Anti-Plague Institute in Irkutsk. The lack of official information and evasive statements from the authorities, according to the author, only increase anxiety: the less the state explains what is happening, the more society suspects that the scope of the problem is being hidden.
For Russians, especially those who lived through the Soviet era, such a reaction is common. The lack of clarity of the official wording itself becomes a danger signal. Also, Kolesnikov notes, the company still does not have complete information about animal epidemics in Siberia and the subsequent mass slaughter of animals.
At the same time, access to reliable information is becoming more and more uneven. Due to internet restrictions in several areas, a part of the population actually remains dependent on television, when what is happening in the country is presented mainly in a positive way.
The author draws a direct parallel to the Soviet Union, where official rhetoric often existed separately from reality. The citizens of the Soviet Union were used to a kind of double consciousness: one reality existed for private life, another for the public sphere.
This model was well conveyed by the late Soviet formula: "We pretend to work, and you pretend to pay." To that, Kolesnikov writes, one more can be added: "We pretend to believe your propaganda, and you pretend to seriously force it on us."