Russian feudalism

Yesterday evening I had a talk with a Russian who speaks German, English and French. I tried for a little while to continue the conv in Russian but that was way too ambitious. He prefered French, I suppose because the others couldn't understand us. He talked loudly, like Russians do.

He just has finished his PhD about the Russian system and it is strange: his opinions are totally different from what we read in the western newspapers. We read something like Poetin is kind of a dictator. He says no. He says it is the system who rules. The system of the KGB. It is stalinist inside, and it tries to pretend being democratic towards Europe, its main market of oil and gaz. That is his point. The Russian system would now, to please it's clients, say to Putin: go, and enjoy your 40 billion of dollars.

There is no state in Russia, he says. A state is something based on abstract principles of a functional differentiation. The state is separated from the economy. Not in Russia. Politics, military power and economy always have been strengled, just until today. It is a feudal village. It is like a dog with a long neck, that let himself call a giraffe, but it remains a dog. The feudal system pretends to be a state.

I didn't agree with him. I think some tsars, I think Stalin, I think Putin as personalities emerge above the "feudal system". And I think the sovjet system was more a state than feudalism. The Russian was a Hegel-adept (see picture). I am not. I couldn't remember when it was the last time I have been discussing philosophy.