Engage with enigma that is Russia

The author with the Cathedral of the Ascension in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in the background.

As the West hurtles into yet another conflict with Russia and its neighbours over the future of Ukraine, let's look at the Russian character to try to understand why so often the West and Russia appear to talk at cross purposes.
Fans of Asterix The Gaul will recall whenever he and his friend, Obelix, encountered any other race or tribe who they did not know, their inevitable comment would be: "These Britons / Romans / Helvaetae (Swiss) / Iberians (Spanish) / Vandals (Germans) are crazy!"
When I first arrived in Almaty, the major commercial centre of Kazakhstan, in June 2007, to live and work for a period of years, I understood how they felt.
Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, and, like all the former Soviet states, its dominant language is Russian. Russians still make up a third of its population.
Of all the ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan, (Kazakhs, Uighars, Kyrghiz, Uzbeks, Tatars, Cossacks, Volga Germans, Ossetians, Koreans etc) I found the Russians the most engaging. A fascinating race, they are courteous, and once they have a sense of you, they are welcoming and open. They are generally cultured, well-educated and full of humorous passion.
Russia is still the dominant influence throughout the former Soviet Union and its President, Vladimir Putin is the most talked-about politician in the region. The question that confronts any westerner living and working in the former USSR has to be, "what are the underlying assumptions that shape the way its people think and act?".
With the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the implosion of the Soviet Union itself, two years later, there seemed to be a priceless opportunity for Europe, America and Eurasia to come together.
The reality has been very different. Apart from the three Baltic States, the other new nations that made up the USSR still operate their societies and politics much as if the USSR had simply devolved into smaller ethnically cohesive components.
Most governments (with the possible exception of Georgia and Kyrghistan) are still uni party and ruled, notwithstanding the existence of parliaments, by presidential edict.
Any pretense to be communist has gone - the economies are more open but, otherwise, little has changed.
Like so many, I have marvelled that such intelligent and well-educated people have always been and still are so fatalistic and politically passive. Winston Churchill, commented that "Russia is a mystery, wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma". This remark is quoted often, but only because it is still manifestly true. We are baffled and I was baffled. I tried to work out why this is so.
Here are a few thoughts.
If we go back into Western history we find that by the 14th Century, emerging Protestant preachers were telling their adherents they could have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. While it took a few centuries to take hold, by the 18th century Protestantism was beginning to impact the way Europe was ruled, particularly in Britain, Holland, parts of Germany and Scandinavia. Populations affected by Protestantism were making it clear to their political overlords they would no longer accept human heirarchies at face value. In accord with the dictates of their consciences, they sought much greater say in the governance of their countries.
Religious reformation then fed into the Renaissance, which progressively relied on emerging scientific discoveries on the nature of the world and universe to challenge existing understandings and accepted social orders.
Today, in the West, our institutions of government bear the unmistakable imprimatur of both of these movements.
But neither came anywhere near the vast populations of Russia.
In fact, if anything, both the Tsar as temporal ruler and the Russian Orthodox Church as the only spiritual reference point, grew in power with the passing centuries.
Scroll forward to December 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here at last the popular and apparently brave President Boris Yeltsin promised a western-style democracy. However Russia, under his vodka-hazed watch, quickly descended into lawlessness and corruption.
The '90s under Yeltsin and his experiment with western style democracy, are regarded as a disaster.
By 2000, the citizens of the Russian Federation had had enough of chaotic "democracy". When Vladimir Putin emerged from the shadows, the country, and the region breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Russians value security and stability far more than freedom of speech. They will tell you that while they may be restricted in what they can say and who they can vote for, their hearts are free. That's how they see life. And there are elements in their society that buttress that approach; the education system, the revived role of the Orthodox Church, the sheer size of the country and that kind of national tribalism that, one way or another, affects us all.
The Soviet Union education system was excellent in terms of technical skills but provided no encouragement for the development of reasoning and questioning the State's Marxist Leninist world view.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, once more - no meaningful change.
Secondly, the Orthodox Church - Eastern Orthodoxy, particularly the Russian variant, believes it is the true keeper of the original Apostolic flame. According to its own history, it was founded by St Andrew, brother of Simon Peter.
The orthodox Church teaches that any non-Orthodox or (at a pinch) Catholic believer is probably no Christian at all.
The sheer scale of the country, covering 11 time zones, beggars the imagination. It seems once more, to reinforce the view that reliance on a central core to run Russia is vital to stability; how can mere human beings begin to understand the complexities of running such a vast nation?
The final factor is tribalism. Like us, Russians are encouraged to think that "we're the best so to hell with the rest". Russians (and they are certainly not alone in this!) believe they are a superior people with a mission to play a significant role in global affairs.
Putin is still popular because he is aggressively reasserting Russia's role on the world stage.
The perception of America among Russians is currently as hostile as it has ever been. The US is regarded as a recidivist global meddler leaving nothing but chaos and disorder behind wherever it chooses to intervene. Consider Libya, Egypt, Syria and now Ukraine.
Europe, rather than being seen as a global example of tolerance, is believed to be confused, soft, morally bereft and in terminal decline.
We must try to consider the mystery, attempt to solve the riddle and actively engage with the enigma.
I am no apologist for Russia, rather, I know many of its people are frustrated and aspire to much more in their daily lives than what they now experience. But they are not mirror images of an average western citizen. Their history and culture ensures they hold dearly to a number of beliefs we would find arcane or almost inexplicable.
In times of tension, I suggest there is wisdom in working hard to understand how they see us and the world at large rather than just screaming at them about how we perceive them.