Sovok Moment: Dmitriy Kisyelev Declares That Nationalism is Impossible in Russia

OK, I felt bad about the fluff op-ed piece I released earlier today. Here’s something to make up for that.

You may have heard about Dmitriy Kiselyov. He’s the guy who constantly talks about nuking Florida and the UK.

Me, I’m OK with nuking Nightmare Island, but Florida? How about Brooklyn instead? Word to the wise, you’ll knock out more “Nazis” that way, if that’s what you were aiming for Mr. Kisyelov.

Kiselyov has enjoyed such a typical career trajectory by Eastern European standards that it is worth mentioning in short here. He was from a family of connected Soviet Moscovites and then reinvented himself as a Liberal in the 90s. Even Wikipedia admits it:

In 1994–1996 he was the host of the "Window to Europe" program on the same TV channel, for the creation of which Kiselyov received a grant from the European Commission aimed at supporting democratic institutions in Russia.

What’s worse, he was even published on (((Echo Moscow))) and a whole slew of other Liberal media. Then, when it came time to switch coats, he became an ardent normiecon patriot. Not everyone can boast having been a card-carrying Communist, Liberal and Conservative in one lifetime, let alone along one career trajectory. In this regard, Kiselyov’s career mirrors that of the typical politician. No real ideas, no firm convictions, just a talent for changing with the times. Eventually, he got his own show on Vesti with a captive Soviet Boomer audience where he makes fun of the West.

Now, Kiselyov gets points for talking about nuking the West and making fun of homosexuals on his show. In fact, he was one of the first, if not the first to mention the SJW thing taking over the West. But his main talking point was that, actually, Russia was more SJW than the West, but did it without going in to excess. He somehow also managed to equate the toppling of statues of the Founding Fathers in the US with efforts within Russia to replaces monuments to Bolshevik mass-murderers with Tsarist Russia heroes.

His monologues are kind of legendary.

However, unlike Tucker Carlson, who uses straight-talk and punchy language, Kiselyov is the mirror opposite, and often can’t help but recite Soviet-era poetry to get his point across. I don’t understand a word of what he is trying to convey when he does this. Russian poetry and expressions have an idiosyncratic quality to them - you have to know what they’re quoting and the context to make any sense of the phrase. Seeing as I missed the whole USSR and 90s thing, I haven’t a clue what these nonsensical expressions mean, but I fake it by nodding along and smiling.

But enough background; let’s talk about what Russia’s #1 news anchor came out with recently. In short, he said that Russia couldn’t be nationalist because it was multinational. Cringe and untrue.

But then he followed it up with this … explanation:

The West supported a government coup in Ukraine and tried to replace the genetic root from which both our nations grew from [Kievrus]. Kievrus was replaced with Bandera. Everything that was good about Russia and the USSR was stripped away and replaced with a Nazi state. (my translation)

So, are you following this?

The strange statement in question: “Russians and Ukrainians are from the same genetic root.”

Now, this is historically and biologically true. In other words, Kiselyov is advancing an ethno-nationalist argument for the reunification of Ukraine. This is right after and before he condemns ethno-nationalism.

Once again, you have to understand the absolute kasha that exists in the heads of people of his generation. They’re all anti-nationalists, but they make ethno-nationalist arguments for reunifying the Slavlands. They also both routinely affirm and deny ethnic self-identity for Russians. So, unlike in the West, these guys will admit that Russians exist as an ethnic group and have a shared ethnic destiny and past. However, they believe that Russia isn’t a Russian country … even though it’s 85+% Russian and 90% slavic, making it more of an ethno-state than Israel.

Basically, they just don’t like the N-word and refuse to apply it to themselves or their country. This is the result of the lingering Soviet programming in their brains. They also don’t have the balls to just assess things through the pure lens of the promotion of Russian interests. In short, they can’t just ask themselves: “Is ___ good for Russia and Russians or not?”

No, they have to figure out an ideological justification for literally everything up to and including what they’re going to have breakfast in the morning and what time they’re going to have a subsequent bowel movement.

If Ukraine is “nationalist” even though it kills its own citizens, acts against its own national interests and is run by a foreign tribe of shtetl upstarts, Russia has to be anti-nationalist, see? Oh and Russians are the best and rah-rah-rah we’ll take on the whole world and win if need be!

It’s … it’s really something lol.

The phrase “meta-political schizophrenia” comes to mind. I’m going to start using it more.