"Post-Putin will trigger a civil war in Russia"
For the great Russian writer, Mikhail Shishkin, opponent of the regime who lives in exile, "a civil war has been going on for more than two centuries" in Russia.
He's optimistic about Ukraine and he's very pessimistic about the democratic future of his country.
For Mikhail Shishkin, who analyzes the culture of lies that reign in his country, "Putin has imposed himself as a new "tsar" and the day he leaves the Kremlin in one way or another, I fear a very dark future in Russia".
The Russian writer continues:
"Lying is in Russian history, the only way to survive. In my youth, under the communist regime, lying was omnipresent. The state deceived citizens, and citizens deceived the state. The power feared its own people, which led it to lie. The population participated in this lie, because it itself feared the power."
A way for him also to make the Russian spirit understood:
"In the West, people don't understand how a leader can lie to his own citizens so shamelessly, assuring for example, in 2014, that there were no Russian soldiers in Crimea. But, for the Russians, it's completely understandable. From their point of view, deceiving the enemy is not a sin, but a genuine military virtue."
(MH with FM/Source: Agency/Photo: Unsplash)