Orrodia as Explanans

The claim in this chapter is that the Russian state has experienced Thucydides’ notion of orrodia ref lected in the speeches of supreme political leader Vladimir Putin. As noted in Chapter 1, orrodia was used by the Greek historian only five times in his writing of History of the Peloponnesian War. They subsumed quoted speeches by Greek political leaders concerning a looming state of dread, apprehension, and anxiety. This fear was connected to becoming outnumbered by an opposing side—and therefore descending into the status of a minority group—a fair translation of orrodia's connotation. So although it is very rarely used today, the term can be interchangeable with fear. Most importantly for this book, it is a way to explain policymaking in the kremlin.

We can take this notion a few steps further and suggest other interpretations: “The Greek orrodeo (to fear) and orrodia (fear, anxiety) lead us through the initial Ionian arr to arretos, which is translated as ‘dangerous’ or ‘terrifying’ as well as ‘unsaid,’ ‘undescribed,’ ‘immeasurable,’ or ‘mysterious.’ “ Like using an advanced thesaurus, orrodia can subsume other closely related concepts.

Of the globe's many political leaders, Putin stands out and invites us to deconstruct his discursive practices. The kremlin ruler's place on the world stage has been unique, highly contentious, and even abominable. His speeches and reference points capture the attention of Russia's political class and much of the rest of the world; it held its breath to hear what other statements came from Russia's calculating ruler. Like scholars, journalists, pundits, bloggers, bots, and average citizens looking for the deeper significance of his insinuations, world leaders took notice of Putin as a self-appointed orator-in-chief.

This chapter singles out one policy area where orrodia—Putin's cited remarks that may elicit dread—is examined: migration. As in many other states, migration policies may provoke resentment by their skeptics and encouragement for diehard liberals. Under Putin, the hypothesis put to the test inquires how his counterintuitive policies on migration, for a short period of time at least, pointed to the kremlin's embrace of a liberal approach. In effect, it sought to welcome migrants not just those from neighboring states who were typically Orthodox but those having Muslim beliefs.