Crisis and unintentional comedy

R.I.P.

barabanch has a post about the impact of the economic crisis on the Russian media sector - not his first on the topic, as media in Russia, as elsewhere, have been shedding staff, scaling back publication schedules, and going belly-up for months now. This time, the unfortunate news is that the online magazine Izbrannoe has stopped publication. It will be missed by many, among the things I appreciated about it during its less-than-two-year life span was its publication of Nashi and DPNI propaganda materials which might not otherwise have reached a broad audience.

Meanwhile, unintentional comedian and United Russia shishka Boris Gryzlov has a very simple way of addressing the crisis: denial. According to RIA Novosti, "[Gryzlov] observed that the global financial crisis is called 'global' because it's happening outside of Russia." Right. And if you believe that, I've got a class A development project in Moscow for you to invest in.

VLKSM > Nashi

The 90th anniversary of the Komsomol is being celebrated more than one might expect, but it seems that the contemporary VLKSM-wannabes are not feeling as much love as they were a year ago. Read the full article for the punch line at the end...

Pro-Kremlin Youths Take Backseat to Crisis
Moscow Times, 28 October 2008
By Francesca Mereu / Staff Writer

Last year, pro-Kremlin youth groups were all over television, promising then-President Vladimir Putin love and loyalty, picketing foreign embassies and harassing a hodgepodge of opposition activists.

As recently as July, state-run television showed First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov lecturing Nashi activists in economics at their summer camp.

But with the election season over and the government grappling with the financial crisis, youth activists have drifted from the political spotlight, busying themselves instead with fashion shows and city cleanups.

There are no plans for a crisis-themed protest.

"We might organize something soon," Nashi spokeswoman Kristina Potupchik said of possible events concerning the crisis. "We have a meeting Friday. We will decide then."

Nashi is now working on "long-term projects," Potupchik said, adding that there are "fewer political reasons" for the mass demonstrations that the group organized during the December State Duma elections and the March presidential vote.

Nashi activist Antonina Shapovalova, who designed pro-Putin bikinis for the group, showed off her collection during the recent Moscow Fashion Week, Potupchik noted.

Nashi's top projects include promoting the patriotic children's movement Mishki, or Bear Cubs, tolerance programs and blood drives, she said.

"These are long-term and real projects, not one-day events," she said.

The plans are, however, unquestionably less confrontational than Nashi programs a year ago, when the group organized patrols -- accompanied by police and known as druzhinniki -- to head off any anti-Kremlin protests.

Now druzhinniki, members of a volunteer corps that dates back to Soviet times, are making different kinds of rounds. Recently, the volunteers removed political ads from the streets of Yaroslavl following local elections on Oct. 13, said Alexandra Valtinina, a spokeswoman for the volunteers.

"People were tired of seeing all those billboards, and we decided not to wait for communal workers to do the job," Valtinina said. "We cleaned everything up."

Nashi burst onto the political scene in 2005, staging a 50,000-member rally in Moscow to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Victory Day. The group was broadly seen as a response to the youth-led protests that helped bring pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine.

Last year, the group noisily picketed the Estonian Embassy following a feud over the relocation of a Soviet-era war memorial in Tallinn. It has also been accused of harassing former British Ambassador Anthony Brenton after he attended an opposition conference.

Nashi founder Vasily Yakemenko left the group last year to head up the Youth Affairs Committee, which is in charge of the country's youth organizations.

A woman who answered the phone at the committee Monday said Yakemenko was unavailable for comment and referred all inquiries to Potupchik.

Nashi's fellow pro-Kremlin youth groups have been comparably tranquil since the end of the election cycle.

Vladimir Nasonov, spokesman for the United Russia youth group Young Russia, said "mass action" is not a wise tactic during times of crisis. He echoed President Dmitry Medvedev's accusation that the Unites States "set up" other countries in the current global financial crisis.

"Our duty is to defend the powers that be in case of large protests against the government," Nasonov said. "We need to back them, because the policy of those people living on the other side of the ocean should be blamed and not our government."

Andrei Groznetsky, a spokesman for Mestniye, another pro-Kremlin youth group, said youth movements were politically active only during the election season.

Both Young Russia and Mestniye appear to be focusing on more nationalistic issues.

Young Russia will hold a demonstration to "protect the Russian language" on Nov. 4, People's Unity Day, Nasonov said.

Mestniye, meanwhile, is devoting its energy to "fighting against illegal immigrants who work as unofficial cab drivers," Groznetsky said.

Both Nashi and Mestniye plan to hold demonstrations on People's Unity Day. The Nashi event, called "Blanket of Peace," will be held on Vasilyevsky Spusk, near the Kremlin.

After United Russia recaptured a constitutional majority in last year's Duma elections and Medvedev won a landslide victory in the March 2 presidential election, Nashi and other pro-Kremlin groups have denied suggestions that they might fade into political oblivion.

In March, several young people took to the streets to distribute rolls of toilet paper embossed with the logo of Kommersant after the newspaper quoted an unidentified Kremlin official as calling Nashi activists "jubilant street punks" and saying their services were no longer needed.

Also printed on the toilet paper was the cell phone number of the author of the article. Nashi denied any involvement in the stunt.

Yury Korgunyuk, a political analyst with Indem, a think tank, said the Kremlin needs all the resources it can get to deal with the current economic crisis, meaning that there will be few funds left over to finance youth groups.

"The markets are in chaos, and there are no bankers or businessmen the Kremlin can ask for money like before," Korgunyuk said. "What can the Kremlin ask of [the youth groups] now? To hold a sit-in in front of the American Embassy and scream, 'Down with the crisis?'"

In fact, Nashi is planning a Nov. 2 protest outside the U.S. Embassy in conjunction with Halloween, Potupchik said.

Nashi activists will bring pumpkins to protest "what the Americans did in South Ossetia, in Afghanistan and in other conflicts," Potupchik said.

The name of someone who died in one of these conflicts will be written on each pumpkin, she added.

Celebrating Victory Day - and (mis)appropriating it

Hopefully my last post didn't create the impression that I don't think May 9th should still be celebrated in Russia. Of course it should. As I mentioned before, I think the way it was celebrated back in 2005, with a retro-style parade, was perhaps more fitting, but if there's a consensus among the population or the elites that a display of missiles is the right way to honor veterans, then so be it (though I liked how Russian LJ blogger peresedov summed up his reaction - with the witty phrase "танки, гоу хоум!").

In any event, the state does not have a monopoly on Victory Day - people will find their own ways to celebrate this holiday (see pictures of such celebrations from last year in this great photoset from Darkness at Noon), which is so very personal for many Russians and people throughout the former Soviet Union.

Ilya Barabanov writes about not having anyone in his family tree who was taken away by the war, which is unusual in Russia, and concludes that the holiday is one of the top three holidays for anyone, along with one's birthday and the New Year. He also directs readers to livejournals apparently written by war veterans, who are of course being congratulated by many readers today. Barabanov's wife, Natalia Morar', marked the holiday in Berlin and noticed the Germans' "amazing ability to acknowledge their historical mistakes."

Georgian blogger cyxymu writes about how the war affected his family, posts a photo from last year's Victory Day celebrations in Tbilisi, and comments that "for me personally this is a big holiday, the last Soviet holiday that unites all of us." Some folks in the Baltic states might disagree, feeling that the greater evil of Nazi Germany was merely replaced by the lesser evil of Soviet power, but on the whole he's probably right.

Natalia Antonova writes:

My grandmother started crying on the phone:

“I don’t want you to ever know what it’s like to hear the shelling and know that it’s coming for you.”

War is banal and blind and savage and ultimately meaningless. But there is still something to smile about today, at least for me. If only because its survivors had children, and those children had children, and one of them was me, and another one was my beautiful baby brother. And there’s a reason why we’re here, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives finding out what that reason may be.

This multimedia project looks to be a great - if time-consuming - way to honor the past by brushing up on your knowledge of the history of the war, and the same can be said of this website which archives the reminiscences of war veterans.

All of the worthy reasons to celebrate Victory Day, and the many ways in which it's possible to celebrate with dignity and respect, make attempts by the government and various groups and individuals supported by it to use the holiday for their own PR purposes (чтобы пропиариться, in contemporary Russian terms) seem especially distasteful. Sometimes it's just a matter of degree, and of course your own distastefulness mileage may vary (на вкус и цвет товарища нет, after all).

The proliferation of the St. George's ribbon - a great and certainly potent symbol of victory - is rather amazing by any standards. The Russian government's website features it along with the Soviet "Patriotic War" medal (this imagery is common on many websites today, including Russian search engines), which is no doubt a fine way to mark the occasion:

But simply displaying the ribbon is not enough for some. There is a dedicated website (using the by-now-familiar layout from websites like zaputina.ru and chernymspiskam.net with tiles of userpics of supporters at the bottom) which seems to have the purpose of providing people with these striped ribbons. I remarked a couple of years ago on how taking such fetishization too far in fact cheapens the holiday - the occasion for that was this crazy visual:

July 28, 2005, 12:35pm, near the entrance to Red Square.

The trivialization of the holiday and its symbols is not the worst thing, though - more disturbing is their instrumentalization for current policy purposes. One of the banners from RIA Novosti's tribute website 9may.ru appears to feature the controversial "Bronze Soldier" statue and is captioned, "Those who do not respect the past have no future!"

9may.ru also has a page dedicated to promoting and documenting the distribution of St. George's ribbons. I guess this - state-run organizations promoting an unrelentingly patriotic vision of history - is what passes for civil society in Russia today, and perhaps it's better than nothing.

As one might expect, the youngsters of Nashi are a bit more direct. Their banner shouts, "He's OUR SOLDIER! It's OUR war...and OUR history!"

This banner appears on Nashi's "Estonian State Fascism" page.

Without wanting to risk committing the same offense I just criticized in attempting to draw conclusions from the holiday which coincide with my worldview, I try to always remember the fact that victory was achieved not only by Russia - though Russia suffered more than any of the other Allies - but in a partnership with the West which unfortunately has yet to be repeated.

The anniversary was a couple of weeks ago (though I don't think it was celebrated this year as it was on the 60th anniversary), but there's no reason on Victory Day not to remember the famous meeting of US and Russian soldiers on the Elbe:

[image source]

"Happy 2nd Lt. William Robertson and Lt. Alexander Sylvashko, Russian Army,
shown in front of sign [East Meets West] symbolizing the historic meeting of the
Russian and American Armies, near Torgau, Germany on Elbe Day."
Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration,
Pictures of World War II, image #121.

At the risk of further politicizing history, I think it's worth remembering that the Allies' cooperation did not just consist of fighting the same foe on different fronts. US military aid to the Soviets under the Lend-Lease program ran the gamut from basic supplies (like the plastic Soviet uniform button with a hammer-and-sickle within a star on one side and "U.S.A. 1943" on the other side that I have lying about somewhere) to more advanced equipment.

A website that appears to be affiliated with the Russian Air Force (VVS) has an account of lend-lease here. Here, one Russian has posted restored photos chronicling his father's military service flying American airplanes. Here is some information about the ground vehicles supplied. And here is an article that looks like it might be interesting about how things changed at the end of the war.

An appropriate final word on Victory Day can be provided by Vladimir Vysotsky, whose songs over the decades allowed veterans to remember and provided to those too young to remember with some of the most evocative descriptions of the war available. A large part of Vysotsky's body of work is made up of songs about the war; here is how the bard once tried to explain this (my translation from a concert CD):

"I write a lot of songs about the war, the reason for that--and I even get letters where people ask, 'Hey, are you that same guy I broke out of siege with near Orsh?' But it was impossible for me to make it out of siege, because I was a little kid, but songs about the war are probably--you know, somehow, our generation which had their first childhood impressions of the war, we must be still fighting out the war or something…I don't know why, but in any case I know that quite a few relatively young people write songs about the war, I have a military family, and, well, anyhow, that's why."

Vysotsky was able to convey a sense of the many forms of loss created by the war even though he was born in 1938 and was not old enough to be a participant in hostilities. His skill as an actor at taking on the roles of his song's narrators makes many of his songs on other topics more powerful as well, but it's especially apparent in his songs about WWII. It's hard to say what his most famous songs about the war are since there are so many. In fact, he wrote a whole play in verse about the war, which was the source of several of his better songs on the subject.

Although I don't think anyone would question Vysotsky's patriotism, only a couple of his war songs are unabashed flag-wavers: "We Turn the Earth" probably falls into that category, as does his song about the marines who stormed Evpatoriia. Vysotsky's war is a more personal and complex war than the official version summed up by the red flag waving over the Reichstag; Vysotsky managed to perceive the war from all sides. He has a song written from the perspective of a fighter plane as it is getting shot down; a couple of songs from the perspective of soldiers in penal battalions; and even one from the perspective of the German invaders.

Vysotsky never served in the military, but he played military men in
several roles on the big screen, including an American marine in the
movie "Flight 713 Requests to Land" [image source]

He sang about the loss of couples torn apart by the war; about the loss of one's buddy in battle; and about the collective loss of the country, in his famous song "Common Graves" (Here's a video of him singing it - "There are no tearful widows at the common graves / Tougher people come here. / They don't put crosses on the common graves / but does that really make it any easier?").

Some of his songs - like the one about a commander who made the correct tactical decision to retreat and was still ordered shot for it, but was not shot after all (see the story at the end of the song here) - are loosely based on true stories, and some no doubt on composite impressions he formed from talking to veterans. The songs about the many tragedies of war are some of Vysotsky's most moving, true tear-jerkers without being overly sentimental.

Vysotsky also wrote songs about the underreporting of Soviet casualties, about a hated but well-connected draft-dodger who ended up a Hero of the Soviet Union, and about the high price of glory and heroism. He wrote a song about the war's end (with the prescient final couplet, "А все же на Запад идут и идут эшелоны / А нам показалось, совсем не осталось врагов.") and about a misunderstood veteran drinking with an uncomprehending youngster twenty years after the war.

Vysotsky as a White Army officer in "Two Comrades Were Serving" [image source]

Here is how he described the post-war scene at the train station in Leningrad in his autobiographical "Ballad about Childhood":

[...]А из эвакуации толпой валили штатские.

Осмотрелись они, оклемались,
Похмелились, потом протрезвели.
И отплакали те, кто дождались,
Недождавшиеся отревели.

And here is his song from the perspective of someone who grew up during the Siege of Leningrad:

Я вырос в ленинградскую блокаду,
Но я тогда не пил и не гулял.
Я видел, как горят огнем Бадаевские склады,
В очередях за хлебушком стоял.

Граждане смелые!
А что ж тогда вы делали,
Когда наш город счет не вел смертям?-
Ели хлеб с икоркою,
А я считал махоркою
Окурок с-под платформы черт-те с чем напополам.

От стужи даже птицы не летали,
И вору было нечего украсть,
Родителей моих в ту зиму ангелы прибрали,
А я боялся - только б не упасть.

Было здесь до фига
Голодных и дистрофиков -
Все голодали, даже прокурор.
А вы в эвакуации
Читали информации
И слушали по радио "От Совинформбюро".

Блокада затянулась, даже слишком,
Но наш народ врагов своих разбил,-
И можно жить, как у Христа за пазухой, под мышкой,
Да только вот мешает бригадмил.

Я скажу вам ласково:
- Граждане с повязками!
В душу ко мне лапами не лезь!
Про жизнь вашу личную
И непатриотичную
Знают уже органы и ВЦСПС.

Why Putin is like Mugabe*

Zimbabwe's President Mugabe has been accusing his political opponents of intending to return farms to their dispossessed white owners.** Where have I seen similar populist rhetoric recently? Oh, right:

[image source]

The Nashi pamphlet this page comes from is an old story, but it is a good illustration of the Kremlin's main anti-Kasyanov talking point throughout the 07-08 election cycle - that he would surrender Russia's oil wealth to "the West" and take things back to the bad old days of the 1990s.

Here is a translation of the quotation attributed to Mikhail Kasyanov (under the banner headline, "This is what betrayal looks like"):

Having received the approval of American businessmen to enter the Russian presidential campaign, I have decided to sell Russian oil for three times less than the current market price.

And here is the actual quotation which appears to have served as the basis for the misquote above:

In his first interview with foreign media since announcing his candidacy, Mr Kasyanov said he would use the huge surplus from high oil prices to improve pipelines. He said: "Such projects would help lower the price of oil and gas on the market." A "fair price", he said, is $20-$25 a barrel. The price is now $63. "The world needs to think about alternative sources of energy, but use what we have now."

As Russian campaign spin goes, this is actually a pretty minor distortion, and no doubt Kasyanov would have been more accommodating, for example, to Western participants in the Sakhalin projects (in fact, one could argue that such accommodation would actually be in Russia's interest, since Western investment and know-how will likely be needed to maximize development of Russia's oil & gas sector). It's worth noting, though, that when Kasyanov was PM, he appeared to at least make a show of driving a hard bargain with Western investors in Russian oil projects.

Nevertheless, it served the Kremlin's interests to portray Kasyanov not only as the corrupt "Misha 2-percent" (a nickname acquired when two percent was enough of an alleged skim to seem offensive; never mind that the only proof of Kasyanov's corruption offered up to the public was a shady dacha privatization involving a sum which the barons of Rosneft and Gazprom would not bend down to pick up off the sidewalk on Tverskaya) but also as an agent of Western corporate interests. Similar nefarious intentions to forfeit Russia's oil wealth were ascribed to Vladimir Ryzhkov (apparently solely on the basis of a meeting with Dick Cheney).

Of course, the myth-making about Russian traitors would be nothing without the creation of a parallel mythology of Western politicos salivating at the prospect of carving Russia up and feasting on the oil wealth. Exhibit A in that book of fairy-tales is the infamous false claim that Madeleine Albright once stated Russia was unworthy of Siberia's oil wealth.

Unlike Zimbabwe, Russia is not a former colony of the West and has never been in danger of losing control of its natural resources. Apparently, Putin & Co. realized that the rhetoric of xenophobia and class hatred travels well to any country.

* Presumably one could fill many blog posts with why Putin is unlike Mugabe. I know almost nothing about domestic politics in African nations, so I would be on shaky ground trying to write such posts (as indeed I may be in trying to draw the comparison which provides the lede for this post). If you feel strongly about the distinctions, feel free to sketch out such posts in the comment section. Let me begin: Putin almost undoubtedly has more genuine popularity in his country than Mugabe does in his; on the other hand, Mugabe's political opponents seem to have actually made it on the ballot, an indignity which Putin refused to suffer.

** For all I know, this may be a valid accusation. My guess, however, is that Mugabe is attempting to spin a more conciliatory stance on the part of the opposition toward the farmers into some sort of treacherous behavior which goes against the interests of the state.

Nash Feminizm?

OK, so this is quite visually arresting:

[image source]

The young lady - or at least part of her - is proclaiming, "VOVA! I am with you!" This was part of a Nashi-sponsored fashion-show-cum-rally (at least, that's what it looked like, judging from other pictures, which are replete with Nashi's alarm-clock logo, something the Nashisti casually appropriated from their ostensible ideological opponents, Ukraine's Pora). Commenters on the post where I saw the picture above had a variety of reactions, including:

Is MTS rebranding again? (in reference to the red-and-white color scheme shared by Nashi and a major Russian mobile telephony provider);

I get it, I get it! They're a mixture of pioneers and cheerleaders.

Nice panties, what does Putin's wife think of this?

Our answer to Uggs. (in reference to the young lady's striped valenki)

Other commenters noted that it's time to change the label - to Dima, or to Medved - or responded with variations on the olbansky word песдец - and one noted that the placement of the label was "If we consider the symbolism....not very proper."

The antics of Nashi can hardly startle one anymore, but this is sort of a new level of tastelessness, fetching though the ladies involved may be. It got me thinking about feminism, truly a dangerous road for me to go down, so I'll admit right away that I'm out of my depth in such topics and apologize ahead of time in case I offend anyone.

The thing is, feminism is one of those "Western" ideas that many Russians condemn based on a flawed understanding of the concept. The Russian stereotype of feminists can probably be summed up as "manly-dressing, unattractive women who get offended when you try to open doors for them." Now, much of this has to do with the wonderful fact that Russian women are brilliant at maintaining dignity and power even while observing certain gender roles and playing along as though they really believed it were a man's world.

But I would venture to say that at least some of it has to do with the fact that many people are uncomfortable with this "foreign" idea - feminism and female empowerment - and the changes it might represent, the aspects of essential "Russian-ness" it might leave behind, and therefore feel the need to discredit such a threatening, new, "Western" idea. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the idea of feminism* in Russia may even be as discredited as the idea of democracy.

Thus, while "feminism" in Russia conjures up (false) images of militant, asexual shrews, who in actuality represent an extreme and perhaps imaginary fringe of the movement, "democracy" also conjures up (false) images of people who mainstream Russians have been taught by the mainstream Putin-era political discourse to refer to as the "demshiza" (democratic schizos), "dermokraty" (shitocrats), or "demokrady" (demo-thieves) - in other words, the people who allegedly** brought the country the collapse and poverty of the 1990s.

As I said at the outset, I'm out of my depth here, and perhaps it's a fool's errand to try to turn a T&A pic with a suggestively placed label into some kind of pseudo-thoughtful discussion. But I figured I'd give it a shot.


*Not that there's just one "idea of feminism" in the rest of the world. Actually, this Nashistka's choice of outfits, which might get her blackballed from some feminist circles in the US as a traitor to the sisterhood who allowed herself to be objectified in the service of a male-dominated political system (I mean, talk about "the personal is political"!), might also be hailed by "stripper feminists" - no doubt this Putinista was thinking, while freezing onstage in that bikini, "By deploying femininity as a tool I [am] exposing it as a construction."

Seriously, though, I have no idea about these ideologies, and probably not much room to speculate on as a guy, even as a "sensitive, caring, romantic 90s kind of guy" (anyone else remember that funny turn of phrase?). So I decided to ask Natalia Antonova, the first person I thought of when I pondered who a reliable source about post-Soviet feminism might be. I've emailed her and asked her to respond in the comments here. We'll see if she can take time away from her own writing, commenting, and general saving of the world with the written word to pontificate in this space.


**I say allegedly because in fact the initial collapse and poverty of the 1990s was largely a carryover from the overprinting of rubles and price controls which were in effect in the USSR right up until 1991. What happened later in that decade is often blamed on people like Chubais, but why then is someone like Medvedev - who policy-wise seems like basically a market liberal like Chubais (actually, an ultraliberal like Chubais, according to Maxim Kalashnikov :-) ) - being designated Putin's heir?

Seriously, is it just me or is it kind of funny to hear Gryzlov talk about the Chairman of Gazprom being the "most socially oriented candidate" (I wonder if he meant, "from among the group acceptable to Putin"?) leading a government focused on raising people's quality of life. It's almost as funny as the idea of that famous "statist with a US passport" (and founder of a "youth movement" that's both less famous and less Soviet than Nashi, one with pre-Soviet roots) Boris Jordan "consider[ing] the life of an average citizen" from his near-oligarchic height.

Speechless

The text says:
"Vladimir Putin, let's continue to work together in the future!" and
"Chief Teddy-Bear, take care of the little children!"
[image source]

Speechlessness - or a brief, shocked (resigned?) obscenity - has been the response of many Russians and Russia-watchers to the latest brick in the pro-Kremlin wall.

The good news? "Restless Bears Have Found a Job for Putin," reports Moskovsky Komsomolets. The bad - or at least profoundly questionable - news? Those "bears" are children aged 8 to 15, who will now have the chance to be involved in a nationwide movement called "Teddy Bears" ("Mishki"). The new organization has been rolled out in the midst of a circus-like frenzy of pro-Putin demonstrations in Moscow. According to the Nashi website (all of the quoted texts in this post are my translations):

On the 6th of December over 35,ooo commissars and activists from the Nashi movement, the "Our Election" (Nashi Vybory) all-Russian youth program, the All-Russia youth education project "Cadres for modernizing the country," the interregional child-youth movement "Mishki," the "Shapovalova" designers' project, and the federal programs Our Army ("Nasha Armiia"), Friendship Lessons, Blood Group, Voluntary Youth Militia, Our New Education, and Hiking, came [to Moscow] to congratulate the President, and also to present their plans for the future.

Actually, it would seem that the powers-that-be initially positioned the busing of provincial youth to Moscow for several days and kitting them out in Putin ponchos at least in part as a way to have a bulwark against the "orange infection" - at least, that motivation is expressed in a Nashi flyer that came out just before the elections. Another funny thing about Nashi's version of events in the paragraph quoted above is that nearly all of these groups and "programs" are parts of or organized by Nashi. But I guess there is strength not only in numbers (and official sanction!) but also in lots of bombastic names.

One thing officials should remember - people care less and less about slogans and politics, but Muscovites always care about anything that will impede traffic. And apparently Nashi's antics throughout the city in recent days have caused lots of probki. Gazeta.ru's story about this was titled "Teddy Bears Lock up the Center" and was illustrated with a picture of a traffic jam and a map showing road closings. Kommersant had a story about the traffic-diverting meeting involving Mishki:

Yesterday on Bolotnaya Square the childrens' movement "Mishki" made itself known for the firs time. The movement is for children from 8 to 15 years old, and their counselors [вожатые - for which my dictionary actually gives "young pioneer leader," so strong is the association] are Nashi commissars. According to the organization's internal hierarchy, a counselor who is able to organize ten events with children is called a "Restless Bear" ["медведь-шатун" - a term for a bear which has woken up for hibernation], and one who unites children from ten apartment buildings is a "Polar Bear." The most senior counselors carry the title of "Brown Bear."

According to the movement's organizer, Yulia Zimova, "Mishki" have organized mainly in the regions [i.e., not in Moscow or SPB], and the parents of the children involved have nothing against their children's participation in public life. On Bolotnaya Square "Mishki" recorded a video message to Vladimir Putin. In it, they called on the president to head up their group, "since he is the most important Teddy Bear in Russia," and asked him to "assign the group a developmental vector."

"I would like to note that any forced participation of schoolchildren in political life is prohibited by law in this country. Especially considering that this took place during the school day," Moscow City Council Deputy Evgenii Bunimovich told Kommersant. "Russia always had enough good sense not to get children mixed up in politics. And today this is happening, and it is horrible."

Representatives of the parties and movements which, according to Nashi, had planned to foment an "orange revolution" in Moscow, told Kommersant that the actions of the pro-Kremlin youth was just bewildering. "The authorities have dishonestly won this election, and no children will make them any more legitimate. [...]" thinks SPS's Boris Nemtsov.

"I would be interested to talk to the city authorities, who swore that they would never permit mass events in Moscow that would cut off traffic downtown," added Denis Bilunov, executive director of Unified Civil Force and a co-organizer of the "Dissenters' March" that was dispersed on November 24.

Kremlin-friendly (or so it seems to me, at least on the CIS issues that I follow) news portal RosBalt.ru had the following to say about Mishki:

Little Teddy Bears Ask Putin to Be Their Megasuperbear

The Mishki movement appeared in September and unites children from 8 to 15 years old. The counselors - high school students - have their own "positions"... the apex of the hierarchy is the "brown bear."

"That is a megasuperbear, who can with his skill and experience solve children's problems in a particular city - for example, someone who can organize the construction of a playground," said the organizer of "Mishki," who is also a Nashi commissar, Yulia Zimova, in an interview with Trud.

"We expect to succeed," said Zimova. "Even if the President doesn't become the leader of Mishki, we hope that he will still support us one way or another."

Mishki already participates fairly actively in pro-Kremlin demonstrations organized by Nashi. For example, they were present at the demonstration celebrating Putin's birthday [Mishki's LJ identifies this as the source of their first press mention] with posters reading "Thanks to Putin for our stable future."

One blog commenter responded to that last quote by recalling a phrase from the 20th century: "Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for our happy childhood!" At least one other commenter on a different internet forum had a similar thought:

"We've already been through this, and it was thanks to Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood. Except that then it was much more sincere, and now it's done to order and for money."

Another commenter questioned the age bracket involved:

I also remember that they used to accept people at age 14 into Komsomol, i.e., into a totally adult socio-political organization. And here it's "plush teddy bears" until age 15. This is some kind of retarded infantilism.

Yet another commenter on the same forum went off:

Can't you see where this is all headed? I support the right of any party to freely campaign. BUT NOT A MONOPOLY!!! What difference does it make - teddy bears, jerboas, or baby crocodiles? If you pound something into a child's unformed head from the age of eight, he'll accept it uncritically as the truth. This is straight-up zombification of children.

Others took a more humorous tack, and tried to come up with nicknames for this new organization (all based on puns that aren't really translatable) : "путинята" or "едросята," proposed one commenter at that same forum. At another forum, proposals for pejorative nicknames were "Putin's Hamsters," "HitlerJungend" (rather unoriginal, since Nashi has already been slapped with this somewhat over-the-top label), and "Медвебрята", "Медвеонеры" and "Медвемольцы" (puns using the word for "bear" with the words for "recruit," "pioneers," and "Komsomol"). On both forums, people lamented the fact that children so young are apparently the subject of a political "hearts-and-minds" campaign.

Would you trust this man with your children?

Most likely, Russian parents have new Minister of Youth Vasily Yakemenko (ex-Nashi head commissar) to thank for the expansion of Nashi's ambit to include the pre-teen set. A Radio Svoboda interviewer got one of the participants to say a few embarrassing things about the way they got kids involved (not-very-good Google translation), and that account suggested that the "Young Russia" group might also have been involved in organizing Mishki's Moscow meeting.

I decided to see whether this new "movement" has a website. Mishki.ru got a "server not found" message, but then I thought that maybe this group uses the same cringe-inducing top-level-domain as Nashi's website. Sure enough, punching in Mishki.su got me to the freshly-baked website of this teddy bear of a youth group, says it has been online since November 21. The website, though, looks like it's still in beta. The front page has impressive, appealing graphics of bears cavorting in red neckerchiefs (a la the Soviet-era Young Pioneers), but the "contact" page lists just some nonsense characters - here's a screenshot, since that's likely to change:


On the section of the site called "Media about us," the only link at the moment is to what appears to be Mishki's official LiveJournal blog, the profile page of which provides an abbreviated mission statement:

We are the All-Russian [sic - even though it's called "Interregional" elsewhere] Child-Youth Movement "MISHKI" [Nashi also likes to write its name in all-caps sometimes, not because it's an abbreviation, but just 'cause, I guess]. We invite you to connect with the future of your country, to touch the creation of the history of Russia - to not allow the loss of the young generation.

Every generation can make a contribution to the country's development. Today, practically a whole generation of Russian citizens has grown up not feeling responsible for the future of their Motherland. At best, they will leave behind graffiti in courtyards, at worst, nothing at all will be left after them. We are people who believe in the future generation and who think that their fate is in our hands. The fate of Russia is in our hands.

The LJ itself has an odd header with what looks like a cartoon version of the Sydney, Australia, skyline; and a couple of posts like this one with photos of children doing wholesome-looking things and not much text. And although that "mini-manifesto" is a bit bombastic and self-important, I certainly can't argue with the principle of raising kids to be conscious of their debt to their society and country. It's a different matter whether this type of consciousness-raising should be a task for a political party that already dominates the public discourse.

At the moment, there's something wrong with the text spacing on the page describing the organization's "Manifesto," but it's nothing a quick edit by a good web designer couldn't fix. The Manifesto itself - or the document on the page labeled "Manifesto" - offers a lot of nice thoughts on values - volunteerism, physical fitness, etc. - and how to inculcate them, but toward the end it depicts something so involved that I can't imagine much of it ever being done in real life by volunteers. It also offers a lot of insight into what values are most important to the people who have set up this organization, and what kind of citizens and country they hope to create (strange numbering as in the original, though I have introduced line breaks for clarity in some places):

III. Once you have earned their trust - start building a state: the Courtyard Democratic Republic
1. The building of a state can start with having the children do what adults do in real life. Children always want to try themselves out at adult tasks.
The children can be actors and play in a theater, or anchors and cameramen and film the courtyard news [...]

1. When you start to build a democratic republic, it doesn't necessarily have to function as a state economically at first. It all depends on what the children want.

The economy should involve around 100 people. Every child should know that, for example, in stairwell 5 of building 7 between the first and second floors, every day between 19.00 and 20.30 the Courtyard Bank, Employment office, and Tax Inspectorate will be open. If he wants to earn Mishkarubles, he can go to the Employment office, where someone will give him a job. For example, if there's going to be a play the next day, then he can set up the chairs for 15 rubles, make the set for 40, or for 30 Mishkarubles take a role in the play. The child takes on the job, gets the money on the day after he works, pays a tax, for example, one Mishkaruble. At the end of the week or month the Leading Mishki conduct an auction, where the little Mishki can buy theater or movie tickets, flash-drives, picture frames, etc. - it depends on the interests and age of the children.

When the children get used to this system, you can build a real state - the President and government of the Courtyard will plan the budget for the month, based on which one or another ministry will conduct events in the courtyard, government employees will get a salary, and some will even be able to open their own companies, for example a firm that does homework assignments, or open their own private bank.

1. When the republic grows to include several courtyards, you can set up a big parliament, buy up land in the courtyard, found an inter-courtyard state television station, hold beauty contests, set up advertising companies, walls of honor for Mishki and Little Mishki.

Before the launch of any courtyard democratic republic, a seminar will be conducted with all organizers who are Leading Mishki in your city.

IV. The Unique thing: the city becomes a single united state of children, where they are the main citizens and are responsible for everything. Now your children have opened real companies, they defend in election campaigns their projects to improve life in the courtyard, they earn money and pay taxes. They are learning management, learning to think independently and make decisions. Now your task is to introduce their projects into the system of regional government. Teach them not to be afraid to live in the adult world, to achieve the goals they have set. [...]

Based on a successful small model, any child, and then teenager and adult, will build a larger model. The model of his city, his state. And even if in that model not everyone will be a government employee, the rest will one way or another be representatives of nationally oriented businesses, or socially responsible entrepreneurs. A country where the children are occupied and involved is assured to have great success. To be the best. To be beloved.

It struck me that a lot of these things - having a "government" and even sometimes a "TV station" are things that kids experience through their schools in the U.S. Strangely, this document says nothing about using the school as an organizing principle.

"Chief Teddy Bear - Take Care of the Children!"
[image source]

Confusingly, the section of the website titled "For Mishki" also has a document that is labeled a Manifesto. Maybe they just accidentally swapped the two texts when they put the site together. This document must be the actual manifesto, for it contains principles rather than a specific plan of action:

Why Now?

A country's prosperity, as a rule, is accompanied by a the mass development of a children's movement. The wise ruler ["Мудрый правитель" - I'm not making this up] wants to know into whose hands the country for which he is responsible will fall, and the residents want to be sure of what will happen tomorrow. Today, we have something to pass along to the next generation - the ability to cope with difficulties, achievements, experience, knowledge, faith in Russia. We can instill much in the generation that will follow us: tolerance, collegiality, the ability to empathize and survive, independence and responsibility. And most important: the ability to be a human being and a patriot. This is not simple, as we know. But it is necessary. After all, this will allow us to create the Russia of our dreams.

The manifesto document talks about developing creative talents, promoting a healthy way of life and charitable work, patriotism and professional preparation, and other worthy things for a youth organization to do. And then it ends with a bang (my translation, italics in original):

A child-youth courtyard movement is something that has never been done before. Perhaps a children's courtyard movement is the very path which will lead us to the development and consolidation of not just new traditions, but also an interesting, kind mass culture. It's possible, that we will raise the sort of citizens, who will be able to take to the streets nationwide and demand that TV shows which degrade the personalities and minds of their children be taken off the air. The Little Mishki who grow up and become Mishki, will preserve the country, the people, history, and culture.

We will raise the sort of citizens who will be a source of pride not only to us, but also to other countries.

Fascinating indeed. But for a post titled "Speechless" I've gone on at great length about this embryonic children's organization - who knows if it will go anywhere? I'll end the post with a bit more info from the MK article I mentioned above:

One of the "Restless Bears" is 18-year-old Masha from Sochi. But she spoke in a way not entirely appropriate for her age: "Sood Uncle Putin will resign, he won't have anything to do, and he'll accept our offer!"

The counselors plan to politically enlighten the children in their charge: "At eight years old it's pointless, but we'll tell the older ones about the 'orange' threat."

As far as Mishki's funding, people in the organization say that the counselors are volunteers and that parents help out with the supplies. But it's doubtful that transporting a thousand citizens to Moscow was within the parents' means. We have heard that the "Restless Bears" are sponsored by large banks and regional businesses.

Can the pro-Kremlin enthusiasts at least leave children alone? If things keep going in this direction, soon the members of "Teensy Bears" [“Медвежулечки”] will be rolled out onto the street in strollers, and after them we'll have pregnant women as members of "Clumsy Embryos" [“Косолапые эмбриончики”]...

Happy (belated) Birthday, Mr. President...

"Наши" натянули одеяло на Владимира Путина // Прокремлевская молодежь поздравила президента с днем рождения Вчера около 10 тыс. активистов движения "Наши" поздравили на набережной Тараса Шевченко с днем рождения президента Владимира Путина. Руководство движения объяснило замерзшим и вымокшим под дождем подросткам, что господин Путин на выборах в Госдуму должен победить сразу и безоговорочно, а не просто набрать "какие-то 50%". Чтобы сделать господину Путину приятное, "Наши" подарили ему 200-метровое "одеяло мира" и пообещали взять под свой контроль все избирательные участки страны. открыть материал ...

Well, it's not quite a serenade from Marilyn Monroe, but Putin received robust birthday wishes from Nashi on Sunday. As usual, the Russian-language version of Kommersant's article on the birthday demonstration is more thorough than the English version from their website. I don't read any ulterior motive or message into this, no doubt it's just an economy of translator resources on Kommersant's part. I've translated a couple of the more interesting bits from the original that didn't make Kommersant's summary translation.

For one thing, the Russian-language article included some of the chants shouted down from the stage - chants like "Putin, we are with you!"; "Putin is an eagle!; and "Two, twelve, two thousand seven - Putin, stay with us forever!" ("Два, двенадцать, две тысячи семь -- Путин, останься с нами насовсем!"), referring to the date of the Duma elections. It also included an interesting tidbit about the banner on the stage, which read "December 2nd - the election for Russia's national leader during 2008-2012." A few photos from the event, courtesy of Kommersant, can be found here. Robert Amsterdam also has a photo from the event and links to a Moscow Times article in which Putin is quoted as saying, "You know, as a rule I don't hold any parties, but this year is an exception." I wonder if Prime Minister Zubkov was at Putin's side during the celebration, as he has been in the past (according to Anticompromat, and yes, I know I posted this before, but it was buried in my ridiculously long post about Zubkov):

V. Putin invites V. Zubkov to his birthday parties (in 2000 [Zubkov] "...was summoned to [Putin's] birthday party at the Podvor'e restaurant in the city of Pavlovsk (there were only 21 guests)" - "Polit.ru", Nov 2, 2001, citing Kommersant). At one of Putin's birthday parties, accurding to Profil' magazine, V. Zubkov even participated in extinguishing the candles on the cake ("Profil'", Jan 26, 2004).

Anyway, here is the abbreviated English translation of Kommersant's article about the Nashi celebration:

Pro-Kremlin Youth Celebrate President's Birthday
October 8, 2007

About 10,000 members of the Nashi (Ours) movement gathered on Taras Shevchenko Embankment in Moscow yesterday to mark Russian President Vladimir Putin's birthday, which was rainy and chilly. Nashi leaders told the crowd, which came from at east 20 regions of Russia, that the president must win in the State Duma elections next month, “and not by some 50 percent.” The crowd carried signs reading “Putin is stability,” “Putin is peace in Chechnya,” “Putin is the Olympics,” “Putin is the stabilization fund” and “Putin is Sakhalin 2” and was entertained by techno remixes of Soviet pop hits.

Nashi leader Vasily Yakemenko, who is also a member of the state committee on youth, declined to speak to journalists at the event. “They complained about the rain and cold in the back rows,” Yakemenko told the crowd from the stage. “But I want to say that I remember the 1990s, when bandits ruled the streets, the country's budget was approved by Americans at the International Monetary Fund and Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky declared war in Chechnya. And I want to say that we cannot allow that to be repeated and the election of the national leader depends on us!”

The Russian Orthodox branch of Nashi ordered prayers for the president's health in all the main churches in Moscow.

Here we have a summary version of many of Nashi's greatest hits - cult-of-personality-level hero-worship of the leader ("Putin is the stabilization fund"), Americaphobia, myth-making about the '90s, fallen-oligarch-bashing, making the youth feel powerful ("the election of the national leader depends on us!"), and of course religion in service of the state. One bit that was omitted from Kommersant's English-language translation was this interesting exchange between the journalist and a Nashist:

"Are you enjoying the party?" I asked a young man dressed in a warm coat and hat.

"Well, it's so-so," he unexpectedly admitted, "We were brought here from Kovrov [250 km from Moscow], and here it's rainy and cold. I want to go home."

"Will they at least feed you?" I asked sympathetically.

"Where would they do that?" he became totally sad. "When they were giving us our instructions, they said to bring money and a lunch box [тормозок]."

"Bring what?!"

"You know, a lunch box, a package with food from home."

So much for Nashi's vaunted perks for the members. I guess a free trip to Moscow is all the provincials got out of Putin's birthday. Another bit:

Mr. Yakemenko finally set out the main points: "The President has made the difficult decision to head up the United Party candidates' list. But he can't do it alone,* and not everything depends on United Russia, either. And Putin can't just get some 3o% or even 50% of the votes. He must win immediately and unconditionally. And we, the Nashi movement, will help him do this!"

The crowd no longer shared his enthusiasm. The freezing and soaked young men and women were standing three and four to an umbrella, and many of them were shivering. On the pavement lay a piece of posterboard that had been dropped by someone, which had "Putin is our national leader" written on it with a marker. No one wanted to pick up the soaked and dirty poster, but everyone was also afraid to tread on it, so people stepped around it carefully.

*a strange thing to say, given that Putin is alone on United Russia's party list.

Kommersant also offered a brief video report from the festivities:

But it seems that not everyone thinks VVP's birthday should be something special. Echo of Moscow Radio conducted a survey (call-in and online - neither of which, of course, is scientific) asking the question, "Do you think Vladimir Putin's birthday should be a 'red-letter day' on the calendar?"

Results of the call-in voting:

1.	67	8%	yes
2.	793	92%	no
3.	0	0%	hard to say

Results of the internet voting (2869 total votes):

1.	421	15%	yes
2.	2365	82%	no
3.	28	1%	hard to say

For some reason, the very fact that they asked this question made me think of a little ditty that I learned back in the mid-1980s while attending a Soviet school:

Всегда мы помним Ленина
И думаем о нем
Мы день его рождения
Считаем лучшим днем

We always remember Lenin
And think of him
We consider his birthday
To be the best day

Put Putin in the pokey?

Nicu Popescu has posted some of his notes from an interview with an unidentified "Russian expert" (identified only as being not a "militant liberal") from his recent trip to Moscow.

The ruling ideology of Russia is to be on the rise. But the problem is that the economy is stangnating – there is no growth beyond oil and gas. And even in the oil and gas industries there is significant underinvestment.

Ru is now hyper dependent on exports of declining commodities – oil and gas. Both gas and oil production, and gas and oil prioces are stagnating. And Ru also has growing gas consumption – Ru is heading towards a catastrophe.

Ru has a worsening foreign policy with ALL is partners. Ru rise is based on US’s (Iraq) and EU’s (internal crisis) weakening not on Ru rising power. Putin has crossed the boundaries. He is afraid to leave. Cause he will be sidelined – the same way he sidelined Eltsin. But Putin also has Beslan, Chechnya, the explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999 – and consequently all the chances to end up in the Hague. The only guarantee is to stay in power – and they increasingly cross the limits and increasing authoritarianism.

Ru is very worried of the ENP [European Neighborhood Policy] – it means that ENP countries align to the ENP and the EU is becoming an internal actor in these states. And it strengthens the competitiveness of EU businesses in CIS because of legislative harmonisation at the expense of Russian businesses.

Ru is for silovaya (forceful) integration of the post-soviet space. Ru is not only threatening with higher gas prices – but is also offering a way out – to let Ru take over energy infrastructure. But the problem is that it is too late for “silovaya” integration. It was possible before the 2004 EU enlargement. But when Russia is doing this now – it gets the worst case scenario – it does not take over energy infrastructure and it scares away the CIS states.”

I can't say I agree with all of that analysis, and I'd love to know the name of the source, but it is all quite interesting nevertheless. The part that I focused on - about Putin being put on trial in some sort of international forum - is a somewhat bizarre idea (in my opinion) that I've heard repeated at least a couple of times in recent months. The reference must be to the International Criminal Court, which cannot prosecute any crimes committed before July 1, 2002. Furthermore, Russia is not a state party to the ICC, and any war crimes committed in Chechnya were committed on Russian territory, so the ICC would not have jurisdiction unless the UN Security Council voted to refer such a case to the ICC - not exactly a likely outcome given Russia's veto in the Security Council.

If the reference to the Hague was a nod to the tribunal there for war crimes committed in the fighting in the former Yugoslavia, there would be the same barrier to setting up a similar tribunal on Chechnya. I doubt that a special war crimes tribunal will be created for Chechnya, bearing in mind that the two such tribunals currently in existence (ICTY and ICTR) were created by the UN Security Council, and Russia could use its veto in this case also to nix the creation of any proposed Chechnya tribunal. So, to be honest, I don't see any legal threat from international institutions to Putin in his retirement. Even more odd is the thought that Putin would have any sort of international liability for purely domestic events which did not involve any ill intent (e.g., Beslan).

More recently, there has been speculation about Putin's potential liability (presumably under UK law) for the Litvinenko killing if he travels abroad when no longer head of state.

Killings May Leave Putin a Hounded Man (Times of London, March 11, 2007)

[...] Some of Putin’s opponents intend to turn the tables on the Russian leader. Yuri Shvets, a former KGB major and friend of Litvinenko, believes Putin will be hounded abroad when his term expires in 2008, like the late Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet, who was accused of human rights abuses.

“The biggest concern for Putin is what he is going to do after he retires and loses his immunity as head of state,” Shvets said at his home in Virginia. “He should be afraid of turning into another Pinochet. Putin likes to travel abroad and one day he may go downhill skiing in Europe and find himself behind bars.”

Barry Carter, professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington, also said Putin had good cause to worry. “Heads of state are generally protected, but once he stands down, his legal status becomes very murky. If he travels, it will be at some risk.” [...]

These statements were made and quoted in the context of not only Litvinenko's death but also the killing of Anna Politkovskaya and possible killing of Ivan Safronov; however, it is hard to see how Putin could be in too much legal trouble in other countries for the latter two incidents.

None of those three alleged killings would give rise to international criminal liability (i.e., the potential to be tried in the ICC), as far as I can tell, so it would seem that the only way Putin could be prosecuted would be for Litvinenko's death in another country's (presumably the UK's) domestic courts. This, I suppose, is a possibility, but it seems like a remote one at this point. And I don't think that any domestic courts (other than Russian ones) would have the proper jurisdictional hook to try Putin for war crimes in Chechnya or anything else that happened in Russia, unless the victims were foreign nationals.

Incidentally, when Pinochet was tried outside of Chile it was in a Spanish domestic court, and the original basis for arresting him was alleged responsibility for Spanish citizens having been killed in Chile. No similar basis exists for Putin, except possibly with respect to Litvinenko. So, unless I'm missing something (and I'm definitely going to research this more thoroughly when I have time), I can't see any great likelihood of Putin facing prosecution if he leaves office.

It all seems like the sort of idea that would be really useful to those who have Putin's ear and want to convince him to stay on for another term. This may be the classic case where extreme forces on opposite sides help each other, if inadvertently - true Russophobes who always want to stick it to Russia may advocate going after Putin if/when he steps down, and those close to Putin who want him to stick around in office may remind him about this possibility, because there seems to be a (not entirely true, as there is no immunity for heads of state in the ICC) notion that a sitting head of state cannot be prosecuted.

[Image source (scroll down) / a translation of the full brochure into English]

This page (from a brochure distributed by the pro-government youth group Nashi at a recent demonstration in Moscow) tosses out the suggestion that trials of Russian Chechen War veterans will be in the headlines in 2008 and suggests that international legal processes are viewed by some in Russia as being simply an instrument of American domination. Note the "Saddam Executed" headline on the newspaper in the background, which also suggests a threat to Putin in an oblique way, by implying that the US just kills off foreign heads of state it doesn't like (other parts of the brochure talk about the US carving up and colonizing Russia).

Some articles alleging war crimes in Chechnya (and other articles somewhat on this topic) that I found when googling around on this issue:

Bush and Blair Could Face War Crimes Charges (2007)

Putin Urged to Seek Justice in Chechnya (2007)

Crime Without Punishment - Russian Policy in Chechnya (2003)

Could Putin Someday Join Milosevic in the Dock at the Hague? (2002)

No Indictment for Moscow War Criminals? (2000)

War Crimes and Human Rights Violations in Chechnya (2000)

Chechnya: Russia is Committing War Crimes and Genocide (1999)

Bits on Estonia

I decided to translate this article - emailed to me by a friend in Moscow who gets his news in part from Inosmi.ru. This article originally appeared in a Polish newspaper, was then translated by an Inosmi reader, and I'm translating it from that Russian version, so something may be lost in translation. Anyway, I take no position on the article - just wanted to translate it.

The Pinnacle of Russian Hypocrisy
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
Sergei Kovalyov
May 2, 2007

The same thing that is taking place in Estonia is happening at the same time in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, where the remains of Soviet pilots who perished in battles with the Germans are being relocated. The only difference is that in Moscow the militia dispersed a demonstration by youthful protesters, but in Estonia demonstrations are permitted.

Russia's protest against the relocation of the monument to Soviet soldiers in Tallinn is the pinnacle of slander and double standards. Russia is protesting because we are ruled by the heirs to the Stalin era, who have never apologized or sought forgiveness for the fact that the Soviet Union turned Central-Eastern Europe into a concentration camp. It would never even occur to them that Stalin didn't liberate but actually cruelly conquered Estonia.

Russia's misfortune lies in the fact that, unlike other peoples, we have no concept of "national guilt" or "historical guilt." And this situation was not an innovation of communism, but dates from an earlier wea. Russia's actions were justified by empire-building, but the idea of creating a Third Rome in Moscow, of uniting all of the Slavs under the scepter of the Tsar. Communism adopted this mentality. If we had a sense of historical guilt, then those who committed crimes under Stalin would have been punished or at the very least subjected to condemnation. But nothing of the sort happened.

It was easier for the Germans to do this after the Second World War, since they were occupied, and de-Nazification was forced on them. In Russia after the collapse of communism nothing of the sort happened, and we can feel the results of this today.

Our politicians, who are protesting the events in Estonia so vehemently, should have at least a tiny bit of a conscience.

For those interested in Polish readers' reactions to this article, the same Inosmi reader has translated into Russian a bunch of comments to the original article (though with a bias - indicated in the italicized translator's introduction - toward translating more of the pro-Russian comments).


The best summary I've seen of Estonia's argument against characterizing the Soviet Army as a "liberating" one was in a comment by Peteris Cedrins at Siberian Light:

If two bandits invade your house, theu both rape you, they fight, and one comes back to rape you for another fifty years — the last is a “liberator”? Because he fathered a bunch of children upon you?

Russia's official - and from all indications unofficial - reactions to this scandal have been extreme. The website of the youth organization Nashi has a whole section headlined "Estonian state fascism," and comments from government officials have been similar to or even harsher than the following:

Alexei Borodavkin, Russia's permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the "blatant human rights violations in Estonia" indicated "indifference and connivance by the EU and NATO, organizations that have given membership to a country that tramples on the values upon which European culture and democracy rest."

Copydude also has some fairly trenchant commentary on the bronze soldier - and one Russian's view of the situation.

More on Nashi

NEWSru.com has an interesting article on the developing and increasingly violent conflict between newly formed Kremlin puppet movement "Nashi" and the only truly activist political opposition in Russia today, Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party (unlikely heroes, to be sure). I've translated it for all of y'all non-Russian-speakers who might be interested:

The NBP has asked the Prosecutor General's office to open a criminal case against the leader of "Walking Together" and "Nashi" Vasily Yakemenko
Published on 14 April 2005, 21:20

Members of the National Bolshevik Party have filed a formal request with the Prosecutor General's office demanding that a criminal case be opened against Vasily Yakemenko, leader of the "Walking Together" and "Nashi" movements. NBP leader Eduard Limonov made this statement to journalists on Thursday at a press conference at the Rosbalt news agency.

According to him, the reasons for this demand were Yakemenko's numerous statements in the press about the start of a battle with Limonov's National Bolsheviks and the subsequent аttacks on the NBP office in Moscow and on party members. "16 Nashisti [members of 'Nashi'] have already been arrested after these attacks, and we have succeeded in getting criminal charges filed," said Limonov.

NBP lawyer Vitaliy Varivoda explained that the NBP is demanding that the Prosecutor General's office file charges under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (organization of an extremist society). "It is obvious to us that the attackers all used similar methods, that all of the attacks on the NBP were organized and used instruments such as hacksaws and gas," said Varivoda. According to the lawyer, if a court eventually declares "Nashi" to be extremists, that would lead to a ban on the organization.

In an interview with Echo of Moscow [radio station], Limonov admitted that he is more interested in the role of the Kremlin, which has created all of these movements, than in Mr. Yakemenko himself. That said, the National Bolsheviks are not planning to respond to "Nashi" in kind.

Meanwhile, 46 National Bolsheviks are currently in jail, according to Eduard Limonov. This includes the NatsBols who have been charged with seizing the Health Ministry and the reception area of the presidential administration.

NPB members suspect "Nashi" of organizing at least three large-scale attacks. On January 29 at 10:00 the NBP headquarters was attacked. There were roughly 40 attackers. They arrived in a minivan; in addition there were two automobiles with tinted windows near the building which had not been seen parking there previously and which vanished right after the attack took place.

The attackers shouted nazi slogans and were armed with wooden clubs - shovel handles which had been sawed in half, from which the price tags hadn't even been removed. Two NBP members were beaten, but the attackers were unable to gain access to the headquarters, thanks to a well-organized defense. The NatsBols were able to detain five of the attackers. The militia, which arrived a bit later, took all five to the Lomonosovskoe precinct. Charges were filed against those detained under Article 213 ("hooliganism").

On March 5, a group of unidentified young people using a saw broke into the NBP's heаdquarters on Maria Ul'ianova Street. The National Bolsheviks barricaded themselves in the building, and the attackers poisoned them with gas. According to the NBP, the attackers were accompanied on this occasion by a cameraman from [state-owned] Channel One. The militia was informed of the attack, however officers did not arrive at the scene until two hours after they were called.

According to NBP press secretary Aleksandr Averin, law enforcement detained nine of the participants in the attack on the NBP's bunker. The rest of the attackers were able to escape. Also seized were six baseball bats, two crowbars, and gas cannisters.

The NBP claims that the marauders were diligently videotaping a dozen syringes and twenty bottles of vodka that they brought with them. In addition, they beat the NatsBol who was guarding the bunker, Chechen War veteran Yakov Gorbunov, with a baseball bat. He suffered a broken jaw and an injury to one of his eyes.

The NBP claims that members of the new pro-Kremlin movement "Nashi," created under the aegis of the presidential administration, were behind these incidents. Sources in the NBP told NEWSru.com that the attack itself was carried out by football hooligans from the Moscow "Gladiators" gang, hired with funds provided by "Nashi."

Recall that at one of his press conferences Vasily Yakemenko proclaimed that the main task pf "Nashi" would be to battle the "nazis," which according to him includes the NBP.

NBP member Yakov Gorbunov, a victim of the attempted storm of the NBP bunker on March 5, was attacked on April 10 in Moscow. Near Maria Ul'ianova Street, unknown persons jumped him from behind and beat him about the head with metal bars, after which they got into a nearby car
and drove off.

NBP sources believe that this was "Nashi" taking revenge for the fact that Chechen War veteran Yakov Gorbunov had testified against them regarding the recent attack on the NatsBols' bunker. As a result of his testimony, charges were filed against the participants in the March 5 attack.

This article is suspiciously one-sided, but maybe that's just because Yakemenko couldn't be bothered to comment, what with the "Nashi" launch festivities today and all. The report is worth checking out even if you can't read the Russian, as it has a great photo of Yakemenko looking rather pathetic.