Post #295,883
11/10/07 9:00:08 PM
11/10/07 9:40:47 PM
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I am greatly upset, pissed and a bit scared
In our town, Cablevision provides us with 4 channels of Rissian programming, including Channel 1, the official government TV. What I've seen today on Channel 1 was a sign that the worst times of Russian history in 20th century are coming back. Russia is about to turn back to its old ways.
A bit of context. In Russia, as in Soviet Union before that, and in Tsar's Russia earlier still, all police force is federalized. There is no such thing as local police - every constable ("militioner", as Russian police is called "militia" since the 1917 revolution) is ultimately controlled from Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. They do cooperate with local authorities, but ultimately the orders come from Kremlin.
Soviet Union, being an unusual country, had an unusual holiday: Federal Day Of Police. It was a fairly minor affair, not rating a day off, but it was an occasion for a big concert, where all the Soviet stars would sing praise to the brave militioners, their protectors. The concert was invariably shown on Channel 1,and was considered a fairly significant cultural event of the year.
After the events of 1991, the holiday was sort of forgotten. Militia, while not quite KGB, was part of the same system under Stalin, and was quite tainted by that association. Still, the federalized system survived Yeltsin, and got inherited by Putin.
Putin revived the Police Holiday. The concerts are in favor again. Basically the same people who were singing for militia then are still singing for them now. The same Choir of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is on stage with them. This was noting new. I was not really happy about it, but since I was here and they were there, I really couldn't care less.
Today was another of these concerts. And the final moments this time around were really and truly scary. To the sounds of a 70s song about the brave militioners whose hearts are calling them toward the tempestuous distance, three groups of people marcged onto the stage. The first was dressed in the "uniform" of Russia Civil War style, representing obviously the original CheKa. The second was dressed in the uniforms of 30s through 50s, representing the Gulag, I guess. And the last group was dressed in the 70s style uniforms (not that different from today's). This is all in the presence of the entire top of government, from Putin down.
The only comparable thing would be to have Ms. Angela Merkel and the entire Bundestag listen to [link|http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/horstwessel.html|Horst Vessel], while on the stage people parade around in SA, SS and Vermacht of 40s uniforms. Except it would be hard to get the same old people to sing Horst Vessel in Germany, while in Russia the old guard was still available and still very much in the voice.
The old Russia is back. True, the Marxism is dead, and Russian Nationalism took its place. But the old repressive machine has been rebuilt, well oiled (pardon the pun) and ready to be used. Whatever Putin says in the West from this point on is irrelevant. What he just said to Russian people is unmistakable. CheKa/NKVD/MGB is back in business. Watch what you're saying, watch what you're thinking, and don't even think about doing anything at all. Putin, the Best Friend of Children, The Genius of all Times and All People - He is with you.
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179. I will not outsource core functions.
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[link|http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/misc/overlord2.htm|.]
Edited by Arkadiy
Nov. 10, 2007, 09:40:47 PM EST
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Post #295,901
11/11/07 10:56:20 AM
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Sad and very worrying sign
There is a big article in the Economist not to long ago explaining how Putin was putting a lot of old school KGB guys in positions of power. From what you describe they have pretty much finished the process and they have not updated their attitude over the years.
Jay
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Post #295,902
11/11/07 11:15:04 AM
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Understood, but don't despair too much.
Putin's been tightening his grip on the country, and trying to reign in Russia's neighbors, for several years. I agree that it's not a good sign, not at all.
However, there are several things arguing against returning to the bad old days. Information from the outside is easier to get. Economic power is more dispersed (even with Putin's tightening). Russia's military power is much less. And there's the history of throwing off tyrants in the last 20 years that would argue against greatly increasing central control.
I agree with you that the symbolism is disturbing. I think a lot of it is being ratcheted up due to the upcoming elections. But all isn't lost, just yet. A lot will depend on how much control Putin and his cronies have when he leaves the presidency, and what happens in the election when [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Zubkov|Viktor Zubkov] is up for re-election. If there's no effective opposition on the ballot, then a one-party dictatorship on the lines of Mexico's old [link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_Revolutionary_Party|PRI]. I think few would argue that Mexico benefited from such rigid party control for so long.
But we'll see...
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #295,952
11/12/07 6:10:53 AM
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Gary Kasparov
Who, although equipped with bodyguards when 'home' - appears to me to be a pretty visible Mine Canary:
Should he be assassinated (too..) then it will signal what Shall Happen to any viable opposition. Gary is a very smart man, not at all naive; nor a mere one-trick Chess-pony. But, can he survive?
Many in the world presume that - The Web cannot become subverted, filtered \ufffd l\ufffd China (and Cheney-Con wannabe machinations.) Putin appears to match The Berk's manic stubbornness, only with lots more grey matter than our Decider.
I guess we'll see.. though Putin is smart enough to be patient, whereas our home-grown imperialists have none of that. (I presume nothing ... especially about (locally) some magical Web-techno saving a bunch of non-voting perpetually uninvolved consumers from themselves.)
Luck to us all against the cumulative World-Wide noise generating Dumbth machine(s) and the angry masses produced by Sharia Madrassa 'schooling'. (Or Oral Roberts U?)
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Post #295,960
11/12/07 7:47:54 AM
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Agree on the canary bit.
But, to some degree the, genie is out of the bottle. Underground or not, there will be resistance to Putin and his cohort. At least some Russians have been infected with the taste of freedom.
Alex
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)
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Post #295,964
11/12/07 8:29:51 AM
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Yeah, but they all live in America.
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Post #296,501
11/27/07 9:29:11 PM
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Kasparov arrested, given 5 days "administrative detention"
Since it is "administrative", no lawyer can get access to him. A fellow Duma member attempted to visit Kasparov in prison, only to be told that Duma members are not allowed inside (the prison commandant said something along the lines "I know it illegal to stop a Duma member, but I have my orders"). Karpov, the other Russian Chess star (remember him?) tried to get access and failed. Kasparov's mother was told that the parcel for him should go to another prison. The other prison says that Kasparov is not there, either.
I am pretty sure that Kasparov will be released unharmed this time around. But the message (here is that word again, "message") is crystal clear. Next time, his case will get lost in the bureaucracy for real, and nobody will be able to tell which urka (convict, recidivist) in which cell of what prison will have beat him into coma. The greates chess mind of all times will spend the rest of his life in persistent vegetative state.
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179. I will not outsource core functions.
--
[link|http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/misc/overlord2.htm|.]
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Post #296,506
11/27/07 10:28:41 PM
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Which brings new perspective to the talents of The Decider,
eh? re. the local angle.
(Shrub's infallible and lugubrious 'peering-into-the-eyes' of his new Friend -- pronouncing him 'nice': appears to have been about as reliable a communications medium as was his claimed daily pipeline to God (whose alleged 'direction' all-along has proven so entirely fallible / or has it been quite some Other artifact, within that messy Shrub-jelloware -?- which has been doing all this stupid stuff..))
Like, maybe the familiar ravings of a Dry Drunk?
Yes, I noted that report with trepidation, too.
I pretend possession of no accurate Rorschach on the strange and dead-cold-eyed Mr. Putin, but when he started flying those er, 'Fail-Safe'-Era bombers again, my thought was, well -- clearly this is a thoroughly Reactionary sociopath, still hooked on Absolute == Military Power (especially of the "Raketski?" Group in charge of all those shiny, still fully-functional nuke missiles.)
Pretty rotten timing, on a planet where the odds of the Dominant Species' survival - were already diminishing with every day's new language atrocity, each one of which favors the escalation of more (of the real, palpable) dead-body atrocities. Dead body / dead mind - take your pick.
Your guesstimate of the possible actual tactics re our admirable Chess Grand Master is.. chilling, given your unarguable, direct experience of the milieu! {Ugh} And, given the combination [Putin + All That Oil] -- I am at a loss to imagine there being any punitive consequences at all, to even so transparently contrived an event. As with the journalist(s) ...
Welcome to our Race to Century XII (er 'MC') some time <Magna Carta, one supposes.
Pathetic.. that most of this unravelling has taken only. 6. years. and, via such a tiny cabal.
Who could have predicted the fragility of that thin veneer of 'civilization'?
(I know, I know ... LOTS of writers, both before and after the prescient Mr. Orwell nee Eric Blair.)
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Post #296,507
11/27/07 10:35:22 PM
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Fully agree with your assessment.
Another revolution may be required.
Alex
Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)
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Post #296,133
11/16/07 1:53:34 PM
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Economist adds another bad sign
[link|http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10102921|Economist] The manual's choice of period is suggestive: from Stalin's victory in the \ufffdgreat patriotic war\ufffd to the victory of Mr Putin's regime. It celebrates all contributors to Russia's greatness, and denounces those responsible for the loss of empire, regardless of their politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 is not seen as a watershed from which a new history begins, but as an unfortunate and tragic mistake that hindered Russia's progress. \ufffdThe Soviet Union was not a democracy, but it was an example for millions of people around the world of the best and fairest society.\ufffd
The manual does not deny Stalin's repressions; nor is it silent about the suppression of protest movements in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. It does something more dangerous, justifying Stalin's dictatorship as a necessary evil in response to a cold war started by America against the Soviet Union. \ufffdThe domestic politics of the Soviet Union after the war fulfilled the tasks of mobilisation which the government set. In the circumstances of the cold war...democratisation was not an option for Stalin's government.\ufffd The concentration of power in Stalin's hands suited the country; indeed, the conditions of the time \ufffddemanded\ufffd it. New history book pushed by Putin. It isn't mandated on schools yet, but I expect Putin will be leaning pretty hard. The book celebrates Russia's authoritarian leaders and dictators and marks the democratic ones as weak. It claims that because of Russian's mental make up they are better suited to being lead by a single powerful leader. And it tries to rehabilitate Stalin by saying what he did was necessary in the face of outside aggression. The book appears to be quite rabid in it's anti-western slant and it's pro-authoritarian slant. Not a good sign for future relations. [link|http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/13/asia/russia.php|International Herald Tribune] President Vladimir Putin's government has failed to reverse a steady post-Soviet decline of the armed forces despite repeated pledges to strengthen military might, a group of independent experts said in a report released Tuesday.
The military continues to suffer from rampant corruption, inefficiency and poor morale, the report said. The Kremlin has also failed to deliver on its promises to modernize arsenals, it said. Not exactly good news, but Putin has not been able to fix the military problems he is facing. Years of corruption and neglect have seriously damaged the Russian military. And it is very hard for one corrupt bureaucracy to purge another corrupt bureaucracy of corruption. It would be a mistake though to think of the Russian military as weak. Jay
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