Thread by @kamilkazani

Brat-2 and the Russian state cult

The CEO of Russian aerospace (& missiles producing) state company Roskosmos Rogozin published this video in his telegram channel РОГОZИН. It may look weird for foreigners but Russians understand this allusion very well (not a thread)

In his video Rogozin is basically threatening the outer world with the nuclear war, while reading some silly childish sounding poem. For context let's have a look on another video, also from his Telegram channel t.me/rogozin_do. Russian fighters are reading the same poem

Pretty much every modern Russian can easily understand the reference. It is a poem from the Brat-2 movie, where Russian mafia members are departing to the US to take revenge against an American criminal boss

The poem is repeated twice. First the protagonist visited a school in Moscow and heard a child reading it. He kinda caught the vibe

Later, he got to Chicago and found a skyscraper where his enemy's office is located. While climbing there through a fire escape he's reading the same poem by heart

Here you can see the entire scene with Brat's revenge. Yeah, it looks kinda like a trashy criminal movie. No wonder so many underestimated its cultural impact in Russia. For Russia it's not a random film. It's the integral part of the state cult

Yes, part of intelligentsia mocked the Brat movies as trashy and tasteless. I personally like this parody the best But while the part of intelligentsia viewed them ironically, the wider masses took them unironically as a source of the eternal wisdom

Why would Brat movies play such an important role? They kinda resonated with the national vibe. By 2000 Russians felt humiliated and wanted revenge. It was the spirit of age and not the initiative of Putin as many think. His predecessor Primakov had also tried to play this card

NB: A very important detail. While a movie is about a Russian bandit's revenge against the American criminal boss, he doesn't kill his enemy in the end. He visits him, massacres his workers and henchmen, but doesn't kill him. His real goal is to demonstrated his superiority

Whom do two Brats kill then? Well, as I said, Chicago criminal boss' henchmen and workers, the random folk. But also the Ukrainian bandits. Their death is also portrayed as a sort of ethnic/national revenge. Which they deserved by refusing to accept a Muscovite as their brother

I am very much inclined to think that the Brat-2 movie is a reflection of the Russian ruling class feelings and the worldview. That's why they were advertised and propagandised so massively, endorsed by the state-controlled media, especially in the context of the war with Ukraine

If we analyse Kremlin's motivations through the Brat-2 lenses, what they would look like?

The archenemy is the Chicago mafia boss (DC elites). But our goal is not to destroy them. Our goal is to inflict a defeat upon them, see their fear and humiliate them. To restore our pride

On our way to meet our archenemy however, we will have to kill tons of folk who may not be complicit in his crimes (like his night club personnel) but just happen to be there and stay on our way to:

1. take money from the nightclub office
2. more importantly, restore our pride

If we view the war in Ukraine through the Brat-2 lenses the fault of Ukrainians consists largely in being there, standing on our way to meet the true boss and restore our pride. The war in Ukraine is primarily a leverage to get a better negotiating position with the DC

That is not to say that Moscow wouldn't attack Ukraine if not for its conflict with the US. Moscow never truly recognised the independence of Ukraine and viewed post-Soviet states as breakaway provinces to be saved from themselves. Z-war is a war of the imperial restoration

But Kremlin also views Z-war as a proxy war against the US, which is really fought to take revenge for the prior humiliation. In this context Ukrainians are more of misfortunate fooled guys, whose real fault is just staying on a way of a rightful avenger. End of 🧵