In Soviet times, ideological training was part of everyday life.
This can be seen again today in modern youth organisations
and old car brands such as the Moskovic are making
a comeback.
The Soviet Union is becoming increasingly present in today's Russia.
People are reminded every day on TV about the good
things in the Soviet Union.
What a strong country it was.
What a world power. But that's not all.
We are seeing a major parallel,
which is an enormous increase in investment in what I
would now roughly describe as the military industrial complex.
He is promoting this development and saw the fall of
the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the
20th century.
Is Putin steering Russia towards the Soviet Union?
In the communist Soviet Union,
the state controlled everything in economic life,
what, where and how much was produced.
Although there was a great deal of deindustrialization after it
ended,
there is still the basic group of companies that has
actually survived.
And the interesting thing is that it has more or
less been subsidized for 30 years.
Keeping industry alive with state money was a common practice
in the Soviet Union.
If you want to do Business Today,
you have to be on good terms with the Putin
regime,
otherwise you'll fail
in Russia. The thing is,
you don't have to nationalize in order to exert state
control.
For example, they have considered introducing something like a Secret
Service presence in private companies.
As Russia has become more authoritarian,
the pressure on private companies has increased significantly.
The state increasingly casts a shadow over the economy,
and when Putin or one of his associates wants a
company,
say an oil company, the owner can't do much and
has to hand it over.
There are also parallels to the Soviet Union in terms
of consumption.
In the past, there was often nothing to buy.
Today there is, but only people in the big cities
benefit.
Despite sanctions. Goods from all over the world are available
here.
There are also many small towns and villages where the
standard of living is on par with the end of
the 19th century.
Sometimes there are no paved roads or old grandmas still
have to collect wood to heat their houses.
Russia has incredible potential if it's resources and wealth were
used to improve people's lives.
But that's not happening.
Prosperity for the few. That's been part of Putin's policy
since he took office around 20 years ago.
This is consistent with everyday life in the communist Soviet
Union.
It was a world power also,
because of its very high arms expenditures.
Putin has also increased them in the course of the
war in Ukraine.
That's a parallel we're also seeing when they tried to
compete with the US in the 70s and 80s.
In the end, in the mid 80s,
around 30% of the entire economic output was spent on
defence and the Soviet Union ultimately failed.
We're not quite there in Russia yet,
but Putin is moving in the same direction.
Investments in the farmer industry or other future oriented sectors
are being severely neglected,
just like at the end of the Soviet Union.
The same applies to the IT sector,
where Russia was a world leader in some areas before
the war in Ukraine,
but not anymore.
Russia should be investing in technology to prepare for the
time after oil and gas.
That's not happening at all,
and they're simply using the money that's coming in to
wage this war.
That works in the short term,
but in the long term,
the country's economic future is being squandered.
Is an economic downfall imminent like with the Soviet Union?
I just don't see the regime collapsing due to economic
upheaval.
You can certainly continue to live in such a system.
If you have these various elements to keep things stable,
like a completely controlled media,
a strong internal police force,
and a strong army, then it certainly can work.
There's a lot of the USSR and
Putin's Russia. Even if it's formally capitalist,
however, the end of Putinism is not yet insight.