A few years ago the Russian authorities reintroduced certain Soviet practices of governance, and now they are invoking past experience on a greater scale. However, Vladimir Putin and his entourage are restoring not the canonical USSR but the ‘proper’, from their point of view, country of Soviets. Paradoxically, this USSR 2.0 resembles a large corporation. Many Russian citizens are nostalgic for the Soviet past and will clearly support these moves, although what they are dreaming of in the first place is the reinstatement of that era’s social guarantees. The management of the Soviet corporation wants to earn the profits offered by a free-market economy and to maintain a rigid Soviet-style management hierarchy at the same time. They do not intend to share their profits with citizens, who are treated as their subordinates. This contradiction could trigger social discontent in the future, although so far the Kremlin has successfully used Soviet symbols and practices for PR purposes.
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