What some people find admirable about Russia, is that it possesses brute strength that could be best anthropomorphized as The Hulk. Some people worship brute force above all else. They are able to maintain a simplistic fascination, precisely because the Western media insists that Russia is a weak, backward country. There is no need to evaluate beyond 'is it, or isn't it?' I've already proved this is a false narrative, perpetuated by Russian Maskirovka and American psyops, for different reasons.
Because once we confront Russia for what it is, new questions arise. Is it moral for a state to commodify, exploit, and ignore the wellbeing of the lowest quintile? To treat that quintile like enemy combatants? They never ask themselves what it's like to be Hulk the rest of the time, even though that's basically the entire premise of the original comic. People fetishize the monster and don't actually consider what it's like to be Hulk, or how the comic depiction couldn't possibly match the actual character of a beast with such characteristics.
What kind of civilization can be built with such brutal hands? Maybe one that disdains everything that was built before. A civilization where anything that can be 'Hulk-Smash' should be smashed. Hulk can't befriend anyone. Hulk inspires fear. Who will love Hulk? Nobody. That's why Hulk probably has a raging boner and in the comics, they edit out all the times he raped someone. And that's what Russia is to many people: a comic where all the rape and murder is edited out. We just see epic battles between a costumed creep and this monster. People identify with Russia/Hulk, just like they do with Bigfoot, because so many idiots insist that this Russian monster doesn't exist. They are so caught up on debating the existence of Bigfoot, nobody asks about the second order effects of an extant Bigfoot. Russia's depiction is like this: all glamorized with heavy metal beats and bloodthirsty military call signs.
Just like with the Hulk, nobody seems to care that the back story is everything. They eventually just wrote-out Bruce Banner, last time I was reading that twaddle. Who knows what's happened since? I don't care, it'll probably mess up my metaphor. But the back story is what made The Hulk interesting. The Hulk can't love. Bruce Banner is a scientist. He wants to build things. He comes from the tradition of Atomic Gardening.
The Hulk just destroys. This is Bruce Banner's personal horror. But the fans can't identify with the scientist. He's a wimp. He does everything the hard way, like study, or work long hours, or going to the nuclear test site himself instead of just watching the Youtube of Pewdiepie watching and commenting on the test. The Hulk does things the easier way, because he's just born that way. Russia doesn't need to build a complicated economy, it just needs to max-out the number of scientists and engineers it generates, so that its human capital resembles its natural resources and financial capital: plentiful and malleable. That sure beats complicated supply chains, when you can just build what you need on the fly and ignore enterprise efficiency. Just focus on systemic gross profit and loss. Such a system even creates its own efficiencies. Russia is hard to subvert, but designed to subvert other states. Just like The Hulk, Russia breaks the world that it wants to join.
Maybe you think this is an era that calls for a Hulk—someone who is just too strong to control, who just wants to smash everything. But the psyche of the Hulk is the psyche of every bully, sad and wounded. Same with Russia. It ended the USSR in what is surely a Panglossian best of all possible worlds. As someone who grew up expecting to grow up to be a pile of ash, this was one of the great miracles of my life. But some supervillains decided to mess things up. You thought America was Superman, and then later you find out it's just Homelander. And Russia could have been cool: it could have been Wolverine. A place that's been to hell, and recognizes that Good Is Better. Instead, we've turned it into Dr Octopus, a villain always thirsting for revenge. Always wanting to don its USSR tentacles. But again, Dr Octopus had inferiority complex. The heroes tried rehabilitating him, but they wanted him to deny an essential part of who he is (the robo-tentacles). That was maybe Old Russia, circa 1988-2008. Putin is like a Dr Frankenstein who transforms Russia into Hulk. Or maybe this is more a Thundercats metaphor, because Russia is like Mumm-Ra:
“Ancient Spirits of Communism
Transform this decayed form
To Russia, The Hulk! Smash!”
In any case, all these mixed metaphors are funny, because they depict the truth that Russia fans are unwilling to face: if Russia gets everything it wants, there will be a loss in global standard of living—localized to a major loss in the European standard of living. The more war trends, the more valuable Russia's industrial base becomes. Competitors have to choose between building their own military-industrial supply chain and then buying enough from it to keep it in business, or just buying Russian arms and ammo (and now, probably, military advisors). This is Hulk-o-nomics. Build nuclear power plants or build Hulk-Buster weapons? One increases production, the other is just insurance that eats large chunks of national profit margins. The more spent on guns, the less on butter. Moralizers want to claim Russia is weak to prevent admirers from seeking to emulate it. The Borg (https://aaronlee.substack.com/p/the-borg) fears Russia, because it threatens their plans. And maybe we need The Hulk to crush Homelander and Friends, but if that's the case, we're already in deep trouble. When you start looking to The Hulk to save you, the cure might be worse than the disease.