The growth of hatred in society is closely relat
ed to the stagnancy of the current government authorities. At the same time, we do not see a deep gap between society and elite. Generally speaking, society are not so con
cerned about who rules, but they are tired of the picture that they see on TV. So it is time to change the picture – to remove all the ‘rich and famous’ – a cult of success has not yet devel
oped and I hope that it never will be.

People are not over
enthusiastic about power, but subconsciously they still spontaneously presume that the others
that is, counter
elite groups
are even worse. We have always held con
tempt for those in power
the bosses, the state, and its institutions. It is also typical of Russians to scold their Motherland, even upon meeting a foreigner for the very first time. However, in the case that the foreigner directs any criticism at Russia, we tend to burst out with patriot
ic rage. These feelings cannot be used as a political resource. I would not say that today, hatred towards elites has grown signficantly, but the first signs of that can be observed.

Certainly in democracies there’s a lot of resentment towards elites and especially political elites on the part of ordinary people or the masses. But it’s more fluid, more change
able. Once the elections are held and a new party comes to power, even the people who did not support the new party coming to power feel like, ‘Oh, well, at least we have some power over the composition of gov
ernment.’