Paul A. Goble Quotes
born 1949 United States
Paul A. Goble (born 1949) is an American analyst, writer and columnist with expertise on Russia.
Random Paul A. Goble quote
11 quotes
The importance of the creation of a free Ingria cannot be overstated.
What political analysts commonly call newspeak is in fact a “formative” language that provides its audience with meaningless phrases so that people will not think about what they are hearing but simply accept what they are hearing, according to Moscow anthropologist Aleksandra Arkhipova.
At the end of Soviet times, some talked about creating “socialism with a human face.”. But now, Russia instead has created “capitalism with an inhuman face,” a system in which the worst features of capitalism have been exacerbated and its best minimized or eliminated, [economist] Igor Nikolayev says.
One of the distinctive features of Stalinist totalitarianism was that no one was safe from persecution and arrest. Even those who were the most supportive were suspected of opposition because it was assumed that these “wreckers” were trying to rise further up the ladder of power and thus be in a position to wreck more.
On November 5, Ruslan Perelygin, [an] opposition legislator in Oryol, used AI to create a clip showing protesters denouncing the local mayor for a variety of crimes and demanding his ouster, a creative use of new technology to protest at a time when genuine demonstrations are almost invariably illegal and subject to harsh punishments.
The ways in which Stalinism is returning to Russia are truly insidious. Among the worst is this: In Stalin’s time, Russians denounced others to get their apartments [and jobs]; now, in Putin’s, they claim doctors have said something against the war in Ukraine if they want them fired and replaced with someone who’ll give them the care they want.
When people and especially political leaders tell [unconscionable] jokes about ethnic or other minorities, [Kazan Tatar political commentator] Ruslan Aysin says, that is part and parcel of a xenophobic campaign and opens the way to the oppression of these groups -- however much those who tell such jokes try to insist that their critics lack a sense of humor.
The sources of mass unemployment in the North Caucasus are multiple and often cited: a high birthrate, widespread corruption, a large shadow economy, and instability; but in addition, Marina Liptshits says, there is another: Moscow benefits from this situation and isn’t doing anything to change it.
Sufism has existed on the territory of what is now Kazakhstan for more than a [millennium]. It was largely suppressed by the Soviets, but it was reintroduced largely by ethnic Kazakhs returning from abroad, and now is growing because of its ability to adapt to new conditions, [Kazakh sociologist of religion] Aygerim Temirbayeva says.
Given Putin’s revival of many aspects of the Soviet past, many are quick to label the official art his regime has been promoting as “socialist realism 2.0,” but specialists on Russian culture say that is inappropriate because in two important ways, the situation in Russian art today is fundamentally different than was the case in Soviet times.
Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that nationalism is “the first stage to Nazism” is not only wrong but dangerous because he has the power to mistreat those who espouse nationalism within the current borders of the Russian Federation, according to Anatoly Nesmiyan who blogs under the screen name El Murid.