Why is Putin so Popular When People Are so Poor? - RAI With A. Buzgalin (9/12) 

I'm so sick of hearing the word "oligarchs" when someone thinks they have credible knowledge about Russia. Yet, nobody ever uses the term "oligarchs" when referring to the US, which can credibly be described as an Oligarchy.

Two intelligent men, being critical of their own countries and societies. This is the only thing that has ever made the world a better place. Thank you for this.

I guess you could ask that same question about our Country! Right? That's why we have the poor ppls March..!

Why is a leader who brought stability to the country and earned prestige abroad, popular? Indeed, a very difficult question to answer!

13:19 I completely disagree with Buzgalin's answer! (I'm a Russian.) The thing is, there is an old existential debate in the Russian culture that dates back to the early XIXth century. Back then a nobleman called Chaadaev wrote a series of essays that have become famous, in which he claimed that Russia is basically a country that failed to contribute anything to the world culture. This gave birth to the intellectual movement of "westernists" who now have their successors in this non-systemic, non-patriotic opposition they talked earlier in the video. The westernists were opposed by slavyanophiles who tried to prove that the Russian civilization is important. And this debate sits deep within every Russian up until today. Every failure by Russia is an argument for your internal westernist, and every success - for the internal slavyanophile. The fall of the Soviet Union didn't just lead to a depression in economic terms. It was also a literal, psychological depression: the vision people bilieved in as their contribution to humanity failed. People needed desperately to regain self-respect. The reunification with Crimea and the intervention in Syria gave that self-respect back: here, Russia isn't an irrelevant wilderness after all! We, its people, can contribute to the world!

Russians have kept their culture and their values and survived the onslaught of Western ideologies. Good for them. Look at the mess the West is in. This series is so interesting, if more people would take the trouble to learn about Russia and other countries the world would be so different. Thank you Paul Jay.

17:00 Our religious leaders are just as bad here. Some live in multi million dollar homes.

This is an excellent series, and I have learned a great deal from it. Bugzalin strikes me as a fairly thoughtful and self-effacing witness who is clear about the limits of his analysis and open to criticism and new ideas - certainly compared to certain Western academics I can think of(*) - so I feel his story is valuable and important. It has certainly been missing from the discourse here in the 'West'. Well done again TRN for giving us this. (*)Also he has read Marx....

Paul, Awesome stuff you are doing here and in general. Keep Fighting! Cheers!

Thanks for looking into the real Russia.

What a pleasure to listen to an intelligent, conversation, with balanced and sane views. Please, where is the second part?? Thank you to the organisation for making it, and the Professor for his sane discussion [even if I dont quite agree with all of it]. I'd like to study more of his work.

Quality of life for Russians has improved greatly in recent memory. They attribute that to Putin and why should they not?

This series just keeps getting better and better. Thanks

I wish videos like this would link to the previous videos

I imagine it has something to do with the fact they are not as poor as they were in the 1990s. There free medical works again, there free education works again and crime is dropping and everybody gets a roof over there head even if it might not be all that luxurious. They all get free heating during the winter months. Add to that they now have pride again in there nation and hope. The insidious negatives of US culture have been stopped and Russias pride in there own culture has been given back to them. When I was there in 2004 it made me sick to see some Russians adopting what I would call some of the most disgusting sides of Western Culture where there own Culture was so superior. Thanks must go to Putin for helping stop that. He would have had plenty of support from older Russians. It saddened the older Russians to see this happening. Most of it of course was caused by the 1990s period of no hope and no pride amongst the young in Russia. A sense of hopelessness. Putin stopped that and his Government. Even by 2004 most Russians were starting to hope again and there pride was rising. All overall thanks to actions Putin took. There was no hope during the 1990s. Things just went down and down. Putin and his Government can't solve everything overnight. Especially with the USA doing everything they can to keep Russia down and hinder Russia rising from the ashes of the 1990s. It disgusts me every time somebody in the West tries to claim Russia was more democratic under the control of the Oligarchs in the 1990s. Absolute bullshit. What nation is truly free when the majority of there elected Representatives "Duma" is owned by some outside vested interest or Oligarch. It is not as if he is not aware of the problems of the bottom 20%. To help them up now is one of his Governments main aims having sorted out most areas including the Military. Now is the time to help those who have missed out on the new emerging prosperity. He has stated that. Again this year even with rising revenues he has reduced the Defense Budget iff measured on the basis of Exchange rates. I imagine there intention is to direct money as there revenues increase towards lifting this lowest 20% out of poverty. At least they are not going to spend more on Defense. The opposite of the USA. He at least obviously is not about making the Military bigger and bigger. He will not allow the Military Industrial complex to control the nation either. They are expected to serve the nation. Thats my opinion as an Australian that has visited Russia twice.

Maybe because some people believes in other values not just money? My grandma used to tell me, as long you're happy with what you got you're a rich man.

"in 1993 they destroy parliament by tanks" --- Buzgalin

What strikes me is how much of what Mr Buzgalin talks about---kids helping out Cuba or Vietnam, kids cleaning schools, working with farmers during summer---I have heard from my wife. She is younger but lived her youth in CCCP. She often says people did not have time is money mentality, buying & selling constantly on the brain. It was not a paradise ---men drank too much and there were unquestionably deficits in consumer goods, the life was physically much more difficult; however a mining/industrial city (think Scranton PA/ Patterson NJ) would have cultural amenities on par with the capital---not like there is Boulder & then there is West Virginia---Universities were not dominated by elites like here. Women did all jobs surgeon, brick layer, chemist, musician. And as he relates, the 90's run by University of Chicago-Harvard/US State Dept were an absolute catastrophe for people---the whole country turned into a ghetto----

I wonder when life in the US will get as good as Russia's. Do we have to fall further?

I bet you would find a lot of people in many countries living at or below the poverty line I would imagine it runs at about 40% in the UK. There are a lot of people in minimum wage jobs and on zero hour contracts.

In the late 19th, early 20th century, Marxism was widely popular among the Russian intelligentsia, in much the same way campus PC thinking is popular in the US today -- it was, in other words, something lying on the surface, like a fashion, not a deeply thought through philosophy of life. The leading philosophers and thinkers of that era -- Solovyov, Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, among a number of others -- virtually all went through a Marxist phase, but grew beyond it without, incidentally, embracing at the same time liberal individualism. They rejected that as well. This is an excellent series and I am so glad to have discussions like this, light years more thoughtful than the idiocy of mainstream media. All the same, I would suggest that you need to take a deeper look, Paul, at Russian intellectual traditions. It is not the black and white you imagine between 'religious obscurantism' and progressivism. This attempt at a synthesis of what is best in the pre- and post- Soviet past is an ongoing project, one in which prominent Orthodox Church intellectuals are also participating. It is not easy to do. But given the deep influence of Hegel in Russian culture, it is a logical ongoing project for Russia.

Returning to religion is not being regressive. We in the West are so used to debunking it based on 'religion's' massive mistakes, that we have lost touch completely with what it is at its core. In the meantime, consumer, now neoliberal, society has leveled all culture, all human values, all substance, all true individuality.

Forgive me but I keep missing what he said about Jill Stein - anybody hear this clearly? thanks

Because they used to be even poorer and had no social aid and no Jobs

When you want a serious answer to this question then ask a sane person. The words "ideolog" and "idiot" are synonymous.

Princeton or Harvard proved in a research study that America is an oligarchy meaning capital control over polity but difference between America and Russia is American oligarchs have struggled in market like musk Zuckerberg Schmidt etc they became oligarch later and without simply privatisation . Some of American oligarch tech was privatised from pentagon but not all . Russia also have some in of yandex vkontakt telegraph chatroulette Kaspersky Elbrus etc in New economy but due to small market they don't have scaling compared to american oligarchs who are globally competitive because more mature financial industry and English language which is academic and business Lingua franca

Russia sounds like a cheaper photo copy of the US Oligarchy system.

A member of an oligarchy, someone who is part of a small group that runs a country. A very rich person, particularly with political power; a plutocrat. A rich man who used his wealth to gain political power and who would use political power to enrich himself once in office. Sounds like the United States as well as Europe Russia China !

This is an excellent series, I'm doing a deep dive on Marxian theory and everything your guest says makes so much sense. Capitalism is in crisis; there are many internal contradictions causing the crisis but in the US the rule of law is under attack by Trump and his band of not ready for prime time players. They are destroying the rule of law nationally and internationally. Your guest talks about value; Marx wrote three volumes on surplus value. Marx believed that money doesn't have value it's an instrument used in the motion of Industrial Capital. Money does have a price though and that is interest which is a claim on future surplus value. This is another internal contradiction that has moved Capitalism into collapse mode. Ancient civilizations knew with money as an exchange method you had to have Jubilees get rid of debt which is another internal contradiction. The crooks in control of the levers of Empire love themselves to much to confront a nation with comparable strength. China has been passive and the US has been pushing them to respond, a word of advice, if you see a sleeping Dragon let it stay asleep.

U will get good emails because this is good truth.....congratulations.

Down with the Orwellin collective Oligarchy.

Last time I went to Russia I didn’t see any more poor people in Russia than in US. As a matter of fact I was stunned by the beauty of their people and cities, women in particular.

He hits the nail on the head when he says the crisis is liberal capitalism --- Yes, this is what Marx knew 70 years earlier -- Capitalism is exploitive and does not work --- Problem with world is the economic incentives that have risen up since the Industrial Revolution ---- Capitalism has allowed criminal banking and corporate class to rig system that they are now trying to turn into some kind of socialistic dystopia (going back to a type of feudalism, with them being lords and the masses being serfs). WE need a decentralized system of economics where working together is rewarded, but where WORKING is rewarded as well. Those at the top want to be rentiers and those at the bottom want crandle to grave socialism no matter how bad it is as long as they are guarnateed a living. This is what is wrong with the world. Hopefully block chain decentralized and disruptive nature can get millenials to see that their value is from the individual and his choice to join a group or project. -- we all must contribute and if people need help then it is their communities that should support them (not the STATE).

I wish it was addressed what the residual socialist elements today in Russia are. I think higher education is still free, the country has universal health care, and I think Russian pensions are better than SS say in the US. I'm not sure about the oil and the natural gas, I think there are state companies for them. I know Professor Buzgalin earlier said private versus nationalized doesn't mean that much in Russia (I wish that have been explained more clearer), but anyway I wish what is still socialist/quasi-socialist about Russia still to this day had been discussed.

Russia is full of enigmas and contradictions. According to the government statistics, in summer 2017, 22 million Russians were classified as poor (15% of the population)Their monthly income is less than the subsistence level, which is currently 10,328 rubles ($173). Nevertheless, despite the persistent recession and the high degree of inequality, Russia’s poverty level should not be exaggerated, said Tim Worstall, economist and observer at Forbes. Unfortunately, the poverty rate has seen an increase in recent years, with 13.5 percent of Russians living in poverty in 2016, said Dalton Westfall

bad example there at about 00:30 ... I have seen women like that in snow, rain, burning sun - but totally faking the poverty or ailment, etc ... I used to follow them when they finished their days (about the same time I was commuting home) and notice how they transformed after a few hundred meters ... limp goes away, dirty bag goes into another regular shopping bag, scarf off, hair pulled back, walking upright and by the time they get to the metro just another day in the office and on the way home. I have done this three separate times ... similar experience, once she met up with a larger group, family I think, and they all had been doing it, panhandling. A better example of poverty is to leave the city and see how people live in the country - almost medieval, but many of them choose this lifestyle. Poverty in Moscow itself is very very low from what I have seen.

Funny how Americans always point out the problems in other countries, (except our good friends, Saudi Arabia and Israel). I think that keeps us, (government officials and media) from honestly looking at ourselves.

Can it be because Putin is making a difference for the better? Everything is relative. We have it much better than Russians but comparing to our past we are slowly going down.

Putin is a nationalist. He believes in his country, so the people believe in him. Trump is the same, a nationalist.

If you think russia is so poor, you have never been to russia. Compared to Americans, they are rich.

In other words, people in Russia today are not poor. As one now deceased american who moved to Russia permanently wrote me, they are now as it was in US during '50es. Finally good and every year better. OK, they had one blow when US starts economic war (sanctions!!!) before few years but now it is every day better. And they remember how it was in socialism when all lived like american low middle class, but without debt. They remember how it was during american stile of capitalism 1991-2000. Oligarchs, inequality, huge poverty, insecurity, gangs wars and violence. Infrastructural collapse, number of cities without electricity, thermal heating ect. And they remember how becomes when Putin came to power, first stabilization then, recuperation, discipline of oligarchs and liquidation those who wanted to continue looting and taking out of billions into Britain and US. Then recuperation of economy and infrastructure, rise of standard. Military consolidation. They still have some remains of that US decade in their country, some percentage of poor people but it is way less and under control. It is capitalism but regulated, with lot of social benefits and safety nets. And of course, there was crisis because of sanctions, my friend from Moscow tells me that they are really lacking - france cheese. They have their russian but it is not so god. All other what they were buying from the world now they have own, in same quality. But cheese... This is biggest problem for them. And one important thing, they know that war is coming, nuclear war, they remember '80es US when nuclear attack on CCCP was on the brink, they know that it would happen again, soon, when US start to collapse, they will attack.

Don’t correct the man’s English. We understand what he means.

Love ya Paul, but it's time to pass the ole microphone onto someone more eloquent and interesting to watch. Aaron Mate is perfect, find someone similar. No disrespect, you just don't keep the viewer engaged and it's difficult grasping the point and a lot of the time even what is being said. I'm sure you're probably a great researcher, stick to that. Just a friendly 2 cents.

Compare Siberian women to US feminists, and tell me who do you think is happier? Now compare the men who live around those women, whom do you think is happier? Is the US really wealthier then Russia? How big are the houses? How good is the food? How nice is it to go for a walk outside? How well does the community get along? I don't count things in dollar values, dollar values can be manipulated by different groups. How happy is the common person with the life they are living? That is real wealth.

Love when "progressive" media types blame the opioid crisis on the decline of family values.

the US are in the russia borders and putin have to make a stand and not repeat the stalin error with hitler.putin is a strategist and patriotic.make something great again is just a empty slogan.

More less honest interview! But it is not difficult to answer the question from title! People of Russia saw what kind of ''help and democracy'' they can expect from west, even blind can see that West don't want for Russian people to live good, have big economic standard, have democracy, they want to occupies Russia to made them vassals and to steal all their natural and economic resources ! Like they did in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, ....etc. And people of Russia are aware that it is not less then miracle ,how Putin succeeded to stabilize Russia, make her power again, wile all the time, constantly obstructed, sabotaged by the West

Putin is nobody, who is Putin's handler behind the world scene? That is the question.

Why don't you talk about skid row in Carlifonia and many other homeless joints where Americans are living in abject poverty. Across the whole of the USA these homeless joints can be found. The hypocrisy of the West is beyond comprehension.

Nice report. Can you ask the professor about the murder of the Romanov family?

Putin sexy

Might as well ask why the Democratic party is so popular while people are poor? ....oh, I forgot. They're not.

Cuz people arent actually that poor.

*People are poor, but not so poor. Russia's average wage is about a couple of thousands of PPP USDs.* Plus, the Russian GDP during Putin's time has increased more than thrice (216%), more than any other country in Europe.

Marx himself would be ashamed. You clearly know the history, you have studied it. Yet, you cannot answer the question of why there is no other social democratic opposition (you leave out the social democratic aspects in your answer), and only attack liberalism while advocating *for* Russians' needs for strong leadership. You basically end up with a political system that is without liberal or social democratic aspects - so, the same kind of oppressive society MARX was trying to get away from. You also forget that Putin is himself asserting market capitalism, not the West. Then you praise Putin for it. Absolutely chaotic argument. *Facepalm*.

Another Trotskyist!

Bullshit!

How easy this Paul Jay host labels people and parties as neo-fascists!?