Back in 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev allegedly told French President Francois Mitterrand in a private conversation that the USSR was a “third-world country with nuclear weapons.” Not much has changed in Russia proper, including the presence of Western dupes cheering on the flailing autocrats.
While in Russia to speak at the St Petersburg Economic Forum, known as the “Russian Davos” to the deluded, popular podcaster Candace Owens took time out to visit Moscow and praise the country.
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“The Christian expression and heritage here is unmatched,” she told millions of her followers on X. “Unsurprisingly, they are lying to us about Russia.”
You’ll remember that a few years ago, groyper cult leader Tucker Carlson also visited Russia, marveled at the bread, and told his followers it was much nicer than the United States.
Most of the pictures of religious mosaics shared by Owens on her social media feed seem to be taken at the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, which celebrates the nation’s past glories. And Russian culture has produced some of the greatest art mankind has ever known.
But very much like the podcasters themselves, contemporary Russia uses “Christian expression” as a cynical pose. Only around 6% of Russians attend any religious service on a weekly basis. In comparison, around 30% to 40% of Americans do.
The most observant religious group in Russia isn’t looking to the Patriarch in Moscow for spiritual guidance but to the Grand Mufti. Christianity as a faith barely exists. The same can be said of religious freedom, which is restricted for anyone who isn’t Russian Orthodox.
Rest assured, most modern Muscovites don’t live in the areas that Owens and her British nepo baby husband are vacationing. They live in outlying apartment complexes built during the Soviet era. The average home size in Russia is 607 square feet. That’s probably smaller than the kitchen pantry in one of Carlson’s homes. The average home size in the U.S. is 2,299 square feet.
Most Russians live in circumstances that an average American would consider destitution. Russia’s per capita yearly GDP is around $18,000. It’s around $94,000 in the U.S. It’s around $55,000 in Mississippi, our poorest state.
Feel free to adjust those GDP numbers for cost of living and inflation. But know that the last time anyone looked, over 20% of Russian households still didn’t have indoor plumbing, and a third of its hospitals didn’t have running water. If you think infrastructure is bad here, Russia ranks 64th on the Human Development Index, below Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
It’s no wonder Russia is a world leader in alcoholism.
“Oh, and yes,” Owens added, “it is beyond family-friendly. A lot for children to do.”
I hope so. Russia has historically had the highest number of orphans and homeless children in Europe. The “social orphan” problem, meaning children who are abandoned by living parents, has declined somewhat in recent years because Russians stopped having children. The average fertility rate in Russia is one of the lowest in the world. The abortion rate is still one of the highest. The Russian divorce rate is 74%.
Nevertheless, former Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is quite impressed.
No doubt, some people will point out that you can’t really know a place unless you visit. Maybe. But Owens isn’t visiting Russia any more than a person who hangs out in Manhattan for a few days is visiting America. Owens’s handlers won’t be taking her to Tuva, Novosibirsk, Novgorod, Omsk, or Ufa.
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I’m not sure what they’re discussing at the “Davos” of Russia, considering the country is one of the least innovative in Europe. North Macedonia is nipping at its heels. Russia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Bribery is just a cost-of-living expense.
These Russia propaganda trips remind me of Western communists in the 1970s and 1980s who would go over to the Soviet Union and report back on the wonders of socialism. Then and now, these transparent efforts are meant to praise authoritarian Russia to demoralized Americans.
It shouldn’t escape our attention that the “anti-war” Owens and Carlson are exulting in the glory of a nation that invaded its neighbor not long ago and sparked a European war that has resulted in many hundreds of thousands of more deaths than the conflict in the Middle East. They are frauds, through and through.
