It is possible that Donald Trump took a shine to Vladamir Putin because he recognises that the Russian president is the only other conservative leader left in the world. The West's commitment to its own civilisation is in question. There has been a “de-nationalisation” by significant sections of the Western ruling classes. Both Putin and Trump are unapologetic nationalists. Both are on the same side in the newly globalised 'culture war'.

Russia seems more adept at promoting Western civilisation than man leaders of the Western world itself, and European opponents of multiculturalism have a positive attitude to Putin's Russia. Opponents of Russia who used to criticise the country for its communism, now complain about its conservative world view.

While anti-traditional values have been adopted in the West, Putin has taken over as the leader willing to to fight for the traditional way of life. In a recent speech he indicated that he wants to cultivate an image of Russia as a moral crusader. When Russia was criticised for its attitude to homosexuality, he lamented the decline of morality in the West; he referred to the “moral disorienting impact of Western – style social engineering”, saying that it is the destruction of traditional values from above; it is “anti-democratic” because it “runs counter to the will of the majority of people”.

After the speech, he was hailed as “Putin: world conservativism's new leader – a global saviour of of traditional values”.

Putin's admonishment of the West echos that of the Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn's address at Harvard University in 1978. Solzhenitsyn was “appalled by the nihilism and weariness” that dominated Western societies. He said that the Western world had “lost its civil courage”; he also said that the decline was particularly noticeable “among the ruling groups and intellectual elite”. Forty years on, and we are still racing to the bottom.

Conservatism is not a particularly western value, and the east has long been more conservative than the west. Nor is Trump a particularly conservative president.

The real western values are the rule of law, freedom, democratic accountability etc.
Things Putin has always opposed!

When I was last in England many years ago now, I was told by a number of naval officers, members of that most traditional of British services, that the group leading the most traditional "British" life style were the Indian immigrants. They had moved to Britain to be part of the stiff upper lip, service to Queen & Country lifestyle they admired.

Fifty years ago among defence force people there was a strong feeling that if we had another one, [major war], it was more likely to be us & Russia against the Chinese.

I'm too far away from things today to know much, but I believe, perhaps naively, that Chinese actions in the china sea & other places is more defensive than aggressive. Hopefully they are now too dependant on trade with the west for war to be an attractive option.

Russia is now interdependent on Europe. They depend on gas sales to Europe, but have Europe controlled by that need for Russian gas. We are all now too interdependent on each other for war, other than minor skirmishes, to be attractive to any. We need now to have rational leaders who recognise this for a peaceful future.

"Is it true that there is freedom of speech in Russia,
just like there is in the USA?

Yes! In the USA, you can stand in front of the White House
and yell, "Down with Trump!" and you won't be punished.

You cal also stand in Red Square in Moscow and yell,
"Down with Trump!" and you won't be punished either."

Foxy,

That's an old Reagan joke..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3z3eSVG7A

(go to the 2 minute mark)

Don't get conservatism confused with being western.

Conservatism (depending on how you might define it) can and has existed throughout the world and throughout the ages.

Western values have never applied in Russia. Peter the Great tried to westernise Russia but wanted to cherry-pick what is really a complete package.

As the old Soviet Union unravelled under the Reagan led pressure, and it became apparent just how far behind the Russia standard of living had fallen, the majority (I think) of Russians dreamed of adopting western values and modernising their country.

It just so happened that I spent a deal of time at that time in Russia and around Russians (I was in Moscow when Gorbachev took over) and it was clear then that Russians misunderstood the nature of westernisation. They thought they could establish a market economy relatively quickly and open up some degree of freedom of speech without fundamentally altering Russian values. And they failed to understand that this was a package which would entail serious pain before any gain.

To be far, many in the west made the same mistake and advisers poured into Russia in the early 1990s to explain how it could be done. That they utterly failed is clear.

Their were too main reasons:

1. The rulers weren't prepared to cede their rule and sought to maintain it by taking control of the now free-wheeling Russian economy. These were the beginning of the current oligarchy who were almost to a man ex-KGB.

/cont