by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has just not really had a very strong sense of self. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t really even latched on to nationalism so much as a more personal, meh ideology of simple Putianism. That’s what I would credit with how lackluster the support for Putin has been since the Second Russian Civil War began a few hours ago.
So, if I was running the Wagner Group, I would really lean into giving people a reason to believe again. A bigger dream for them to become a part of. As such, I would say, “Help me overthrow Putin, and we’ll have a Tsar again.” Now, the issue is, who would be Tsar? There are a few “pretenders” to the throne who I don’t think anyone takes very seriously but, here me out, through Queen Victoria there is a person you could use — Prince Harry.
Now, this is very funny for a number of reasons, chief amongst them being the Wagner Group is a bunch of thugs and fascists and I don’t think they have it in them to do something as historically cool as put Prince Harry on the throne of new Russian Empire.
But that’s kind of besides the point — pick SOMEONE — to be the new Tsar and then say, “Ok, we’re going to bring back all the trappings of empire if we take power.” There are a few centuries of regalia and tradition established around Empire in Russia and I would tap into that. I would also definitely use that cool white-blue-white flag I’ve seen around some as the new flag of Russia.
I am not suggesting I’m an expert in Russia or Russia history, but just as a casual observer I have noticed that since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia just hasn’t really had much of a national identity. And bringing back the Tsar would definitely fix that problem for Russia. If it was a *constitutional* monarchy, well, all the better.
