More from Echo Moskvy and on Nationalism in Russia
It seems I can also listen to other people on the radio as well as talk...
Echo Moskvy is the only radio station, no, take it back, the only media outlet, in the whole country worth paying attention to. Well, Kommersant is still OK.
There is still quite a bit on the radio about nationalism and racism in Russia. Lots of debates, arguments and "analytica", using a fad Russian media word. For some background on growing Russian nationalism, look up La Russophobe's blog where she tracks events and commentary.
Several days ago a group of "anti-illegal immigration advocates" staged a rally in St Petersburg. The group name and purpose are quite misleading, though. For example, some people refer to Chechens in Kondapoga as illegal aliens, which is blatantly false - Chechens are all citizens of Russia. The illegal immigration protesters are referring to is ability of Russian citizens to move around, so, in essence they are demonstrating in favour of reestablishing of propiska - forced registration and migration restrictions.
But this is not the cutest thing that happened. Apparently there is a new movement - anti-fascists, they call themselves "Anti-Fa". A large group of "antifas" attacked the "fas" and managed to beat them into pulp.
Not really funny, in the long run. There is an estimated 15-25% of Russian voters can swing into the "fa" camp. Sort of similar to France, but more dangerous and more serious.
Back to Echo Moskvy. One of the guests on one of the shows stated that there are two problems behind flares of nationalism. New migrants don't respect natives. Damn, it does not sound good in English at all. He said verbatim: masters of land (literally, owners of land that live in an area - has nothing to do with legal ownership, by the way) do not appreciate newcomers. Bingo. As long this mentality persists, Russia is going to be a cesspool of ethnic problems.
The second excuse was that Russia is a uniquely tragic nation... Blah blah blah.
Digg This!
http://cyrillvatomsky.com/trackback.cfm?EA8DBF6C-3048-2950-92B3694C726612D7
Bookmarks:
Blogs
- Robert Amsterdam
- Publius Pundit
- Russian Blog
- La Russophobe
- Sean Guillory
- Vilhelm Konnander
- Accidental Russophile
- Russia from the Inside
- David McDuff
- Edward Lucas
- Siberian Light
- Scraps of Moscow
- Russian Standard
- ZheZhe [dot] us
- Ruminations on Russia
- Nosemonkey / Europhobia
- Marginalia
- The Oil Drum
- Hello Estonia
- The Observer Blog
- WaPo World Opinion
Anyone who is so bigoted and hateful as LR - who advocates the death of all Russians - is not a valuable or reliable resource for information about the Russian Federation, its people, culture, or history.
My KKK analogy obviously applies ... would you refer African-Americans to "Nigger Hater dot com" (if such a nasty website existed?) Why would you refer those interested in Russia to a website whose very NAME is devoted to the bigoted HATRED of all things Russian? I have to believe your grasp of the English language is better than that.
It is sort of amazing to me as an American that one of the Slavic accusations - that the one ethnic group you can rage against in the US without racist accusations - is truly Russians and Slavs. If you substitue the word "black" or "jew" for "Russian" in much of her writing, it would become apparent how distasteful she is.
I believe there is plenty of room to be critical of the Russian Federation and its government, without indulging in ethnic and cultural biases, bigotry, hatred, and racism. There are any number of intelligent forums for discussion on these topics. Very few of them tolerate LR anymore and all legitimate websites have had to warn her.