What Europeans only partially understand, and Americans not at all, is that the Primary Loyalty of all Russian-speaking People is to Russian Culture, and, through it, to the Values of Western (even Christian) Humanism, of which they see themselves as the Preservers and Protectors...

This is the world-view/philosophy which Putin has indirectly espoused, by contrast, in his denunciation of the "neo-Carthaginian" culture of unbridled capitalism, greed and cruelty of our own Evil Empire; which, when a few months ago I heard it, I was stricken to the heart--as might any Carthaginian have been, had, but for a moment the brazen, loud distracting trumps and timbrels fallen silent, permitting the shrieks of immolated infants to keen through the awful solemn silence of ritual murder.   Ah, the Voice of Truth!

I first became aware that there was a Russian culture, and such a thing as loyalty to it, more than a dozen years ago, on a bus trip from Perugia to Ravenna (per vedere i mosaïci), when, by chance, my seat-mate, a Russian youth from Vilnius, explained it to me--Alexei's English was very good, better than the Italian of either of us at that point.  I was shocked at first, thinking of the past horrors of Stalinism, when he told me that he was a Russian-speaking Lithuanian, but considered himself primarily Russian by culture.   "Goodness," I almost therewith exclaimed, "by what right do you live in Lithuania?"  But I bit my tongue, and said mildly, "Of course, in some things--music, ballet, literature, architecture (I wanted to see if he knew who Rastrelli was)--Russia is supreme, or at least equal with the very greatest."  But that was not all--He wanted me to understand that there is a larger, nay universal, aspect of Russian culture, which by its nature transcends national boundaries. And I, reflecting on the incredible diversity of cultures within Russia, said I supposed there must be.  And then, struck by a sudden fleeting memory of Raïsa Gorbachev meeting, and, quite unintentionally, totally outclassing, then First Lady Nancy Reagan, said, "A transcendent quality, indeed.  When I think of Raïsa Gorbachev--such a lovely, intelligent lady...And I looked at Alexei, whose eyes were suddenly shining, and he burst out: "A great lady.  A genius!"