Putinland
{{Short description|Neologism}}
Putinland is a political neologism referring to Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin. The term has been used in various contexts, from portraying Russia as a corrupt and murderous regime where the line between security forces and organized crime is blurred, to a military industrial oil and gas concern{{cite book|last=Goldman|first=Marshall I.|title=Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia |year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195340730}}{{cite book |author-link=Alexander Etkind|last=Etkind|first=Alexander|title=Russia Against Modernity|date=21 April 2023|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-1509556571}}{{cite web|last=Etkind|first=Alexander|title=Oil, climate and war: The curse of the petrostate|url=https://ceureviewofbooks.com/longread/oil-climate-and-war-the-curse-of-the-petrostate/|website=CEU Review of Books |publisher=CEU Press|location=Budapest|date=May 2024}} that is ready to swat away criticism at home, squash troublesome neighbours, and sacrifice personal freedoms in the name of a strong centralised state.
Definition
Professor of International Affairs, Nina L. Khrushcheva, defines Putin-land as, a Gogol-like, "country of illusions and imagination, in which perceptions are more important than facts, where officials are corrupt and people are oppressed because they all live in a dream of empire," while, in fact, "individual needs are neglected, the state's needs are overstated, and everyone is condemned to a life of cheating and stealing, consoling themselves that, while there is no justice, they are at least part of a great country."
Usage of the term
The term was used by Anna Politkovskaya in an interview held 18 months before her death, she said in relation to the murders of 15 investigative journalists: "It's the same old story, nobody who tells the truth in Putinland is safe."{{cite news
| title = The truth can be fatal in Putinland
| publisher = The First Post
| location = London
| date = 8 October 2006
| url = http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/1692,features,the-truth-can-be-fatal-in-putinland
| access-date = 2009-01-26 }}
A five-part French documentary called Murder by Numbers in Putinland has been made probing the suppression of dissent in Russia and the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London, along with interviews of the prime suspect in the Litvinenko murder, Andre Lugovoi, who is considered a hero in Russia.{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv-reviews/cutting-edge-murder-by-numbers-in-putinland/2008/07/28/1217097132876.html|title=Cutting Edge: Murder By Numbers In Putinland|date=28 July 2008|access-date=2009-01-26|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|location=Sydney}}
Edward Lucas refers to Russia as "Putinland" when he claims that Russian publishers refused to publish the bestselling book Gulag by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum. According to Lucas, the Kremlin moves against texts that cast the Soviet Union in an unfavourable light. He also noted that a possible reason the book was not published in Russia is due to low demand, in what he describes as fatigue amongst Russians in hearing about the history of the gulags, and noted that if it were published in Russian, it is likely it would sell worse than an Icelandic cookbook.{{cite news
| title = Gulag gets short shrift from Putinland publishers
| first=Edward |last=Lucas |author-link=Edward Lucas (journalist)
| date = 29 September 2005
| url = http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/gulag-gets-short-shrift-from-putinland-publishers/53131.aspx
| access-date = 2009-01-26 }}
Nina L. Khrushcheva, a Russian American professor of media and culture, wrote in the International Herald Tribune: "Uniforms are in and patriotic youth organizations such as Nashi (Ours), successor to the Soviet-era Pioneers, are on the march. The economy is great, Gazprom is great, the military is great, Putin is great: The empire remains ours. The Russians are eager to believe that they no longer live in a country defeated by the West. Instead they live in an oil and gas powered Putin-land."{{cite news
| last = Khrushcheva
| first = Nina
| title = Russia's new inspector general
| location = Moscow
| publisher = International Herald Tribune
| date = 10 August 2007
| url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/10/opinion/edkruscheva.php
| access-date = 2009-01-29 }}
British journalist and author Roger Boyes, who is the Berlin correspondent for British newspaper The Times covering Germany, noted that "even the Germans have come to realise that Holy Russia has become PutinLand, ready to swat away criticism at home, squash troublesome neighbours and sacrifice personal freedoms in the name of a strong centralised state",{{cite web
| title = My Berlin - About Russia
| publisher = Roger Boyes
| date = 9 September 2008
| url = http://www.rogerboyes.com/2008/09/my-berlin-about-russia/
| access-date = 2008-01-29}} a view published in his column in German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.{{cite news
| last = Boyes
| first = Roger
| title = Putin-Land ist abgebrannt
| location = Berlin
| publisher = Der Tagesspiegel
| date = 6 September 2008
| url = http://www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/kommentare/Russland-Georgien-Kaukasus-Konflikt;art141,2608479
| access-date = 2009-01-29 |language=de}}
Books
- {{cite book| author = Leonid Wolkow | author-link = Leonid Volkov (politician) | chapter = | chapter-url = | format = | url = https://www.droemer-knaur.de/buch/leonid-wolkow-putinland-9783426278994 | title = Putinland. Der imperiale Wahn, die russische Opposition und die Verblendung des Westens | orig-year = | agency = | edition = 1st |location= München |date = 2022 |publisher= Droemer Knaur |at= |volume= | pages = | page = | series = | isbn = 978-3-426-27899-4}}