Putin’s wife reveals his (old-fashioned) philosophy on domestic affairs…

For over a year, I’ve been writing about President Vladimir Putin’s apparent nostalgia for 1950s Cold-War values that has him doing everything in his power to return Russia (and the former satellite states of the vanquished Soviet Union) back to the geopolitical realities of that era. And I’ve described his neo-Stalinist policies and tactics as the “Putinization of Russia”.

Neo-uncle Putin: master of Russia's (doomed) fate; captain of its (backsliding) soul....

However, political economists far more expert that I have been stupefied by Putin’s back-to-the-future leadership. After all, turning Russia back into a police state – by, inter alia, incarcerating new political prisoners and wresting state control of private enterprises - makes its failed (communist) past its prologue.

But I may have stumbled upon the explanation for Putin’s retarded behavior on the pages of Pravda just yesterday. Because there on the front page was Putin’s wife, Lyudmila, spilling the beans on the keys not only to his heart (“porridges and vegetables”) but also to his philosophy on domestic affairs:

…woman must do all the work at home [and] one shouldn’t praise a woman not to spoil her.

So, never mind President George W. Bush’s goofy (and now thoroughly discredited) diagnosis that he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw the soul of a good man with democratic values. Because Lyudmila has now provided real insight into the mind, body and soul of her husband who is clearly stuck in a 1950s time warp….

Vladimir Putin, Lyudmila Putin