Thread by @kamilkazani

When Kremlin tried to destroy Nemtsov's reputation by publishing his affairs that was so bad move, so lacking the basic awareness of a culture it was operating in, that I unironically suspect it was the idea of American consultants on Putin's service

Kremlin used to employ many

"Publish all his affairs with tons of married and unmarried women and he's done" sounds very plausible to someone from the inner America. It had the opposite effect in Russia. Hooking up with so many women while holding *no power*? That was basically pro-Nemtsov propaganda

Paradoxically it may sound, the only time Russia got (somewhat) close to the American sexual politics culture was in the late USSR. Under Brezhnev, the private life of the Party members indeed became a public matter, somewhat resembling of America

In the late USSR infidelity, affairs, divorces were publicly discussed on the Party Committees (Partkoms). In the historical memory however, that remained as the epitome of absurdity. So the standard line of criticism of metoo campaign, etc. is comparing them with Partkoms

It's dumb to picture modern Russia as some conservative, strong family culture. It's the other way around. If we exclude Muslim majority regions and consider only ethnic Russian ones, it may easily have the highest divorce rate in Europe. In some regions it gets close to 100%

There is a popular joke. We fight against the same sex families, while half of the country is being brought up in same sex families. Grandma, mom, the kids. That's reality of much of inner Russia, not some imaginary conservative utopia that exists mostly in official propaganda