Understanding Moscow: The Mysteries of the Russian Mindset

> Putin is making Russia a dissident from the world order ...

I don't think he is making it, rather there is growing trend against this world order in most countries. And righfully so as this world order tends to care only about wealthy people and nations ...

I’m not sure whether this is a good description of Russian culture in general nor how to objectively evaluate such a thing, but as an American I found it very entertaining to hear a German author make the attempt at comparative cultural evaluation.

It rather reminded me of conversations with my Dutch or German friends, with whom I agreed that their cultures were more cooperative/communalistic in character. These friends would often say things like: “In Germany, a grandmother would swat you with a rolled up newspaper for taking up two seats on the bus that way.” or “Americans insist on having too many choices, one flavor of yogurt should be enough for anyone!”, and so on.

Can't think of an explanation more true and concise that is not a cultural studies PhD work than this article

I wonder how much of the citizens' indifference to and mistrust of the government and politics is a product of living for decades in a communist authoritarian state, as opposed to a fundamental nature of the people there. Seems like a classic case of fundamental attribution error.