admin Staff asked 5 years ago
In this section the questions about Russian local politics are welcomed.
But to start with I would like to give my opinion on general attitude of Russians towards politics, i.e. generally speaking: Do Russians care about politics?
admin Staff answered 5 years ago
Generally speaking, Russians are not very much politically minded. During the whole Russian history involvement of common people in politics was rather limited. And when it turned out to be on a large scale, it very often resulted in poor consequences for common people themselves. Even if we put aside old history, the terrific example of Russian revolutions in 1917 and 1991 still make people think twice before making any steps in politics. Theoretically, history professors may claim that they were necessary to launch new development of the country. But for common people they were a disaster.
Thus the questions “do Russians care about politics” is close to the question “do you like sport?”
For some people positive reply means playing football twice a week. For others it means daily watching football on TV, sitting on a sofa, with further discussion of the games with your friends in your office or in a bar.
Most of Russians treat politics like a kind of a show, which they often take with a sufficient lot of humor. Every day they watch a sitcom with the same type of actors. And they do not feel that their everyday life would change for a better with a change of actors.
But is it not the case everywhere? It seems that only when changes become imminent they bear leaders who are not actors but producers.
By the way, attitude of Russian towards politicians is often based more on a sense of respect than on reasons. That could be one of the reasons why current opposition has so limited support among Russians. So far they failed to gain respect on a large scale. Why? That is another story …