The post-nation state loves the symbols, the institutions, the legitimacy, and the prestige of the nation-state. It tries to steal them but can’t fill them with meaning.
Thus, the message of the post-nation state is invariably, “You must vote but it only counts if you vote in this particular way.” This message is always delivered through coercion because the post-nation state doesn’t know how to evoke love. It’s a cold financial proposition that speaks to lonely self-interest. It can’t speak to “we the people” because it’s terrified of a real “we.”
The post-nation state breaks up the “we the people ” into vanishingly tiny “we” of aggrieved identities. In lieu of love and brotherhood, it offers suspicion, resentment, and a dog-eat-dog fight for scant resources.
Clarissa's Blog 
Think you might be overthinking this one a little. I do not see this as having anything to do with the idea of a post-nation state, but rather just some good old-fashioned Russian imperialism. Having elections but rigging the results is an old-fashioned tactic of tyrants.
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I always say that Putin is Trudeau 2.0. A more advanced version of what Trudeau wants to become. Russia is a typical neoliberal open-border post-nation state.
Imperialism never sought legitimacy through elections. There must be a reason why Russians are so obsessed with staging elections.
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“Russia is a typical neoliberal open-border post-nation state”
It amazes me when people don’t realize that when it’s very obvious if you pay attention for three seconds and don’t watch RT….
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It’s the same story with the EU. The word democracy is bandied about a lot, but don’t you dare vote against their ideas and policies. And if you do, “We have tools to correct the situation…”
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Just curious, but how is Russia considered neoliberal to you? Russia doesn’t adhere to concepts of individual freedom or free-enterprise, or even pretend to. It is mostly a fossil-fuel economy with heavy state influence.
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The economy is based on heavy import of unskilled workers from poor countries. It’s a dog-eat-dog economy with a small, transnational oligarchy wringing everything it can from the cowered, passive masses. That’s what neoliberalism really like.
As for individual freedom, as long as people think they are the freest on Earth, who’s to say they aren’t? Russians think you and I are enslaved and they are free.
There’s nowhere in the world where neoliberalism doesn’t trend towards a small oligarchy ruling over a rapidly impoverished population that is lectured by the oligarchy about how amoral and low-quality it is. That it’s all done under the banners of freedom changes nothing. We are free to do what we want and the oligarchy is free to punish us in any way it wants for it.
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Their economy also heavily relies on imported capital equipment from more developed countries. Low skilled workers are not very productive without advanced machinery.
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