Crimea & Punishment

So, in the days I've been away, it seems Russia has been doing what Russia often tends to; being the international equivalent of the cousin with the troubled childhood, substance abuse issues and volatile temper whose behaviour at the family barbecue leaves everyone awkwardly wondering who's going to be the first to have a word with him, and how bad shit's going to get when that finally happens.

I was, of course, recently reading Robert Harris's Archangel - published in 1998 - and this eerily prescient passage springs to mind in relation to current events:

"[Modern Russia is like the] Weimar Republic, that's how I see it. Six things the same, okay? One: you have a really big country, proud country, lost its empire, really lost a war, but can't figure out how - figures it must've been stabbed in the back, so there's a lot of resentment, right? Two: democracy in a country with no tradition of democracy - Russia doesn't know democracy from a fuckin' hole in the ground, frankly - people don't like it, sick of all the arguing, they want a strong line, any line. Three: border trouble - lots of your own ethnic nationals suddenly stuck in other countries, saying they're getting picked on. Four: anti-Semitism - you can buy SS marchin' songs on the street corners, for Christ's sake. That leaves two. Economic crash, and that's coming, don't you think?"

"And?"

"Isn't it obvious? Hitler. They haven't found their Hitler yet. But when they do, it's watch out, world, I reckon."