Why do the Russian people believe what they must know to be lies? They can't deal emotionally with the reality, and they are aggressively offered a more comforting lie that happens also to keep them out of trouble with authorities if they go along with it. It's a very old cultural trait, predating even the Soviet Union.
@wesdym I'm really puzzled by this too; a deep cynicism about the official narrative is absolutely innate to Russian culture. What countervailing factors cause them to, perversely it seems, close ranks and actually support the bullshit are a little obscure to me.
@pieist My sense is that to the average resident of what we call the RF (and various Russian possessions through history), the whole system seems impossible to resist, and so it's better to go along to get along. The concept of 'vranyo' (artful, shared mistruth for common purpose) is endemic. And everyone fears if they're NOT working some scheme, they're behind other people -- and too often, they're probably right.
The cycle of endemic corruption must somehow be broken.
@wesdym I associate Russians with wry, distrustful utterances like "The people are the shit the wealthy grow their money in". Yes, the "everyone's got a fiddle going, and you're a fool if you don't" is known to the working class everywhere. I'm still bewildered by this weird fealty to the aims of a class -- and a person -- who quite manifestly does not have their best interests at heart, to say the least.
@pieist For leaders, the goal is power for its own sake. It's no deeper or more complex than that. For followers, it's just ignorance, stupidity, or bigotry.