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Sezin Öney, originally from Turkey, is based in Budapest and Istanbul. She her journalism career as a foreign news reporter in 1999 and she turned into political analysis as a columnist since 2007. Her interest in her main academic subject area of populism was sparked almost decade ago; and now she focuses specifically on populist leadership, and populism in Turkey and Hungary. She studied international relations, nationalism, international law, Jewish history, comparative politics and discourse analysis across Europe.
Meet Generation P: Teenagers Born Into The Putin Era
In 2000, the year Vladimir Putin first became president, 1.3 million children were born in Russia. As of 2018, this new generation turns 18, and they will be voting for the first time at the March 18 presidential elections.
As Vladimir Putin is once again running for president to stay in power until (at least) 2024, the Moscow Times embarked on a project across Russia to profile "Generation P", the generation that has lived a lifetime under Putin. The aim of the project is described as "to document [Generation P's] memories of the past, their impressions of the present and hopes for the future."From tourism management student Danil Inyushkin from Kaliningrad to model Arina Bikbulatova from Ufa, the profiles of the youth interviewed are diverse, yet they all seem to be "lost" when it comes to the issue of politics. Almost all of them are completely hopeless that politics can change anything in their lives. Some admire Putin, and yet others criticize him, but in general they seem to be unable to think of Russian politics without him, or his mirror image.
Vasily Khodakovsky, a political science student at St. Petersburg State University, echoes this deeply ingrained pessimism and lack of idealism:
Then there’s the omnipresent feeling that you can’t change anything — either in your own life or in society. You often have no control over what happens to you.
And he goes on to add:
I’ll try to continue on my path within the existing framework in this country, because I’m certain that even after six more years of Putin, the president after him will also be a United Russia candidate. Maybe by my 40s I’ll just lose my rebellious spark and become a conservative.
But Generation P is already quite "conservative" towards life in general, and devoid of dreams, at least as far as the interviews featured so far suggest.
Overall, this is an innovative, beautifully documented journalistic project, providing insight to Russia beyond its youth and politics.
