“Putin, the shame of St.Petersburg”

People seem little next to a Russian grandiosity...But they are still here, protesting.

On Saturday 25th February, Russian people gathered again to protest against Putin. In St.Petersburg, this meeting was the third one officially sanctioned. That means the demonstrators were safe – safe from police and arresting. One friend of mine said: “Make a demonstration of 200 people and it is sure that police will arrest some people. Gather 2 000 people and nobody gets arrested. Gather 200 000 people and police will join you.”

Will they join once?

Marching along Russians in a “revolution” that is being described as American revolution or a Revolution of Not-good-Russians felt a bit strange. Firstly, it was visible that many people are there to take pictures of it (foreigners? ), then it is difficult to share their hopes. This march was not violent, neither passionate. People were shouting some slogans but there was not an enthusiasm in it as one would expect. They know that it is rather a risky enterprise, they know that if they don’t get helped, the main organizers will get “punished”. They are afraid as Russian power has a great history of repression and as Russian judicial power has a great history of corruption.

It is certainly not only a meeting of students and a extremists.

As normally it wouldn’t matter who participates in these meetings, in this case it has unfortunately not a very good impact on the reputation of the protests themselves. Even if the meetings are not only organized and followed by students or foreigners or not good Russians as you could read in some newspapers, it seems that this wave of courage to manifest its opinion has attracted many groups. And not always they seem to demonstrate for the same cause. The official symbol of these protests is anything white it seems – from white flours to white balloons or white ribbons. But this manifestation is full of other symbols – Finnish flags for Finnish separatism movement, flag of Jesus Christ, flags of Nationalists, flags of Neo-Communist movement…Difficult to know what is this all about. In such mixture of movements and groups, it is easy to interpret the situation according to everybody’s needs. No surprise then that these marches are presented as marches of Neo-faschists or marches of extremists in general. These groups do not make it easier for demonstrators because either they demonstrate for their cause either they use a terminology that goes in line with the Kremlin’s critiques of this oppositional unrests. Using the word “revolution” is very dangerous as Putin considers any attempt of revolution as an attempt to provoke a war. Thus, many people shout slogans evoking revolution – some of them speak about “Russian spring” others say it openly that “this is a Russian revolution”. And apparently, there are also attempts to discredit the demonstration by paying the demonstrators – it seems that it is the case of Nationalists who earn their living like this.

"Russians against Putin"

Neo-Communists: "We need a different Russia".

We have 146% - evoking the electory frauds in December and bad Maths skills of Edinaia Russia that claimed to reach over 100% in certain regions.

All these marches are about having a choice. About respecting the law of Russia by Russian leaders themselves. About respecting people’s will. This march is for those who want to have the choice on 4th March 2012.

"2012 - Elections without a choice"

And they seem to be rather numerous.

7 000 people gathered in St.Petersburg to protest against Putin

Putin should understand that what is enough it is enough. People made it clear by their slogans like: “Putin, the shame of St.Petersburg” or “we had enough of being fooled”. Let’s hope that people will keep their courage and continue to show their opinion after the 4th March. And even if Putin wins the elections it will not be easy for him neither to reign over people that do not support him and who despise him.

White balloons symbol of protests against Putin

Homosexuality “propaganda” fined in Russia!

I though I would start more optimistically from St.Petersburg. But I cannot leave without a commentary the « new law about untraditional love » that was passed by the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg on 8th February.

It might be a symbolic measure as St.Valentines days is approaching but one would think that what matters here is love itself and not WHO loves WHO… 

The new law forbids the « propaganda » of homosexuality and paedophilia in the society (not only minors!).  It is interesting that in Russia they put paedophilia and homosexuality together. It only shows how little they know about both of them. But well, who does not want to know, does not know.

Russian legislative « brains » could maybe inspire themselves from the Peter the Great or Iaroslav the Wise who did not persecute homosexuality. Homosexuality might have been a social problem but never was a legal one till 1832 when the new law code based on Wuttenberg one was released. Nevertheless, homosexuality became a political topic in 20th century only because of a dispute between Social Democrats and Conservatives. Social Democrats were for an opened attitude towards sexuality in general as it took part of the day-to-day life but Conservatives believed that it would perturb the public order.

On then on, homosexuals were blamed for whatever in nearly the same way that Jews were.

Homosexuality was punished first in Islamic republics (Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and in Christian Georgia. In Soviet Russia it was first legally punishable under the law from 7th March 1934 as a public offense for which people went for 5 till 7 years in prison. In 1936 Kyrylenko tied homosexuality with the counter-revolution and declared that there is no place for such people in a new and healthy soviet society. Homosexuality would be soon defined as an illness needing a treatment and was persecuted under the article 112 (normally used against intellectual elite).

Today’s attitude in Russia is explicable but not acceptable. It is comprehensible that Russian society might be still based on traditionally values and influenced by the strict Orthodox Church but what always causes the discrimination is a lack of information, it is the fear of « otherness ». Just to give an example, I met an 18y-o boy who believed that he would become homosexual only by the propaganda. The fact is that many Russians just do not know what is homosexuality and are reticent to believe that homosexuals are normal people. I have already described in my previous article my teacher from Nizhniy Novgorod who characterised Europe as being dangerously liberate because of organising the gay parades (the last one was held in Prague).  The same teacher made a “great” joke saying: we should be awaiting these propaganda parades soon for zoologists and paedophiles… As if paedophiles did not « use » for their pleasure children who do not consent to this act and as if it was not illegal to abuse children!

Just for information, the first publication on homosexuality was released only in 1982. And it defined homosexuality as a « dangerous pathology and violation of normal principles of sexual relationships.[1] » Sometimes no information is better than a slanderous lie.

But well. Russian society remains still a very discriminatory towards homosexuals and from now on the propaganda is even fined: 5 000 rubbles! Great job Russia.

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[1] Rosalinde Marsh – Women in Russia and Ukraine in Chapter 10 : Sexual minorities : the status of gays and lesbians in Russian-Soviet-Russian society (James Riordan)

 

Relativity of being…

This article might not be politically correct neither very interesting. It is the first time that I decided to write something more about my inner feelings and my thoughts that have been running in my head recently.

When I was in Russia, one day I have seen a shoe shop called “Shoes of 20th Century”. The writing was all in neon colors and seemed to be really the cool shop on nineties. How funny it looked now in the 21st century! Who would like to wear shoes of 20th century now… The other day I passed by the shop again, it was called “Shoes of 21st Century”…Isn’t it funny?

At the end of my first Russian adventure, I had a very interesting conversation with my friends. In Russia, I learnt that things that I don’t understand at first, clear themselves in my head after some time. So when one of my French friends said that he feels that Russian youth had more freedom than French young people, I didn’t understand any of it. Paris for me was the place where I found my freedom, freedom of living the way I wanted without being criticized, judged or envied by people around me. For me it was a place where I could breathe, where I didn’t feel any pressure, where I didn’t have to do anything because others wanted me to do it. I couldn’t understand why this French guy said it. How can Russian youth be free in a country that is not free itself? But then I understood the difference. Maybe it is because I am a foreigner in France – nobody knows me there and therefore nobody pushed me to be “comme il faut”. Nobody tells me what to do, how to look to match the social patterns, what to accomplish in my life to be successful…Nevertheless, France gave me some “inner freedom” that I am carrying around with me, sometimes I loose a little piece of it, sometimes I forget to look after it and develop it further, but I have it inside myself wherever I am… Maybe my friend felt the same just because he was a foreigner in Russia…

To finish my mosaic of relativity, one more story from my travels. When I was going to the Czech Republic from France, I was going “to the EAST”. When I am going to the Czech Republic from Russia, I am going “to the WEST”… How funny is that when these two words have certain connotations – East meaning, if I simplify, poorer and worse, West meaning richer and better. And I can feel it myself as well. Coming back from France was nice, but I felt that in France many things were “better” (I was also a bit in love with France and not objective). When I came home from Russia, I was kind of grateful. Grateful for timetables, grateful for people that do not push you all the time, of people that say “sorry” if they step on your foot,  … At the same time I miss Russia in a certain way. Recently I read an old Russian proverb that says: “You can either love or hate Russia, but you cannot understand it.” I miss drinking tea with my friends, I miss observing Russian life, I miss babushkas on the street, I don’t understand exactly what I miss but I miss it. At the same time, Prague is full of Russians, full. You hear Russian in shops, on the streets, in a post office. It is somewhat strange when I walk through the Venceslav Square where there is a huge poster of Vaclav Havel, and I look around and see (not only) Russian tourists buying souvenirs… Places loose their symbolic values in time, of course. But this place was full of Czech people demanding democracy and independent state in 1989, people were protesting here against Soviet occupation that lasted for more than 30 years… That is funny how it changes. Russians are becoming the third largest immigration minority in the Czech Republic, and I heard many of them saying how difficult it was to live here. Difficult in terms of relations with Czech people. Yes, but it is also difficult for the Czech people. And even if the Soviet Union is “far far away”, august 68 even further and Communists are less “red”, and even if many things happened only because of wrong political decisions  and Russians themselves are rather nice people, the Czech-Russian friendship is somewhat unbalanced. August 68 is far too symbolic for Czech people, and far not enough symbolic for Russians for example. Another story of relativity…

 

 

There are days when you feel like a fool in Russia…

The 4th November has gone, we knew the “winner” before and we weren’t surprised. But there is winner and “winner”. Shame on you Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev.

It is absolutely possible not to know anything about what is happening. And many people will choose this way. I understand, they have to live here, in this country, in this system. You can easily watch the TV and going to bed with a good feeling “that the elections were held according to democratic principles” and that “there were no frauds”. The big posters of “We will win together” were torn down, and instead off them, there are only some advertisements for a normal consume life. People were hoping to get back to their lives. But this time, it is just not possible. The frauds and falsifications were so obvious, the hatred towards Putin and Medvedev has risen so much, that people have just enough of it. On the wall appears words like: “Putin, the robber”. People come out to streets. In a country that is not used to see public demonstrations, in a country where people seem to put up with everything that comes. But there is a limit and Putin&Medvedev were balancing on the edge for too long. I am not saying that Russia will change from tomorrow, but Russia has already changed a little bit. The people are just fed up to be actors in a dirty theatre play, they are fed up of being told lies, they don’t want to be fooled anymore.

I am not surprised that Putin doesn’t know what words like “democracy” mean. I imagine that for him “democratic principal, regular elections, legitimate winner” are without any meaning. Medvedev, his younger political twin, should have at least some idea about it – after studying and teaching the law (!!!). But we got used to seeing at the head of  Russia a man who doesn’t respect the law of his own country. President who instead of distancing himself from any support of a political party during the elections, make the electory spot for them. I doubt that he has read the Russian Constitution – if he has done it, then only like a bed time story. It speaks about an imaginary country with strong and independent medias, freedoms, etc…It is not this country, it is not what Putin and Medvedev turned Russia into.

One might think, Russians are used to being fooled. But what is too much, is just too much.  You go to vote and you see that your dead father voted for Edinaia Rasia,  one electory district becomes two times more inhabited that it used to be just one day ago,  people around you are paid 1000rubles to vote for Edinaia Rasia, you see that Iabloko gained 50% of votes and Edinaia Rasia only 10% in certain district and in few minutes it is the wrong way round and you are forced to sign (otherwise you go straight to prison) and when you hear in the TV all the time the voice of Putin: “The stability has won! We bring stability to Russia,…”  Mr Putin, you didn’t bring anything to Russia, and you took already too much from it!

Yes, in these situations you feel like a fool. You feel humiliated even though you are a foreigner, you didn’t vote and you are soon leaving Russia. But all these meetings happening in St Petersburg, Moscow, Vladivostok and elsewhere, they are a good sign. Sign, that people won’t put up with everything. Even though, today in the morning, the internet was cut off, the telephone was cut off, students were told to go to school to write a big test (as a surprise testing of education from Ministery of Education), the teachers were told to find interesting activities to keep youngsters busy… (and prevent young people to go to the streets). Even then, the meetings were held and people protested. The police of course didn’t only watch, the first blood was shed. And apparently, tanks were moved closer to Moscow.

Putin&Medvedev will of course hold on power and probably they will manage. Why not when they have the perspective of ruling Russia for another 12 years and who knows, even for longer. But we should try to understand that Russia is changing, that having an “iron leader” is not always the right thing, that people do not support neither Putin nor Medvedev and that Medvedev is just the same as Putin…

And as Russian people helped themselves always with jokes, here is one I heard today:

- Medvedev says: In thirty years, Russia will become a free and prosperios country, country where people live happily and well.

- Putin anwers: What a pity that we won’t be here anymore.

- Oppositional politician reacts: That’s why the life in Russia will be better – because you two won’t be here!

 

 

 

Big Sunday – the 4th December 2011

This Sunday is a big day. The 4th December 2011 – Election to State Douma.

One would think that the electoral campaign would be a big one. It is big, but in different way than I thought it will be! I am used to be confronted with many posters of various political parties when elections take place in the CZ. But here, when I came, there were only the yellow&black posters from Prokhorov (whose candidature was declined or just “disappeared”). No Putin, no Medvedev, No Ziuganov, no Zhirinovski. Then I understood. There is no need of many posters, a huge one is enough.

We will win together aka Buterbrot in action

By the way, the Communist Party, the second one in terms of representation on Douma, used the same strategy.

The Red Power in ex-Gorki City

The tragicomedy of all this effort can illustrate one random conversation I heard on bus. Two students are in the bus:

“Oh have you seen?” – “What?” – “What do you mean what? The huge  poster of Putin and Medvedev of course!” – “Oh wow, I haven’t even noticed!”

The poster is either too big to be seen or the interest of people is too small. Not only that  employees of that company are without any day light during one moth, but it is absolutely useless. And if it should serve as a justification or a proof of “regular electoral campaign,” it’s just too big to believe that it is not a theatre. The saddest thing in this tragicomedy is that Putin and Medvedev are the spectators comfortably sitting in comfortable seats. Those who are being humiliated and laughed at – unfortunately, those are Russian people. No surprise that the motivation to vote is very “mild” as the majority of electorate does not believe that they can change whatsoever. While talking to people, I found out that:

1) they go to vote against Putin (therefore vote for the Communists)

2) they go to vote so that the electorate comity cannot use their voice instead of them

And I’m hoping that there is at least another group, that will vote because they want at least a little change. And that they feel the need to express their opinion. But this just sounds like an utopia (when you know (!) that the results will be falsified)- no wonder that in Russia many people believe that democracy is only a theoretical concept, here you can get such impression.

So how is the atmosphere one night and one day before the elections? There is no tension in the air, no curiosity, no questions about who will be the winner and “will take it all.” What I feel very strongly in Nizhnyi Novgorod is a passive resignation. It seems that people are just waiting to have it done to be able to spend their Sunday how they wish.

 

The king of the Russian federalism jungle: Tatarstan

Two weeks ago I visited Kazan, the capital of Russian autonomous republic of Tatarstan. If you talk about Kazan in Europe, you may hear reactions varying from: “I have no idea what is it” to “Oh yeah, that’s the muslim city” or  ”It is the capital of the Russian muslim state – Tatarstan!”

Let’s say I belong to the second group. I have read few things about Kazan, but I imagined it like a European can imagine “a capital of muslim republic”. I imagined a lot of mosques, I imagined seeing women in hijab or burqa, I imagined seeing “a different culture” that I know. But in fact, it is actually far more “European” than I imagined. (The word “European” is a very inconvenient one for myself, as I do not tend to oppose Europe to Russia, something that is european against what is strictly not European – anyway this part of Russia is still on the European continent so…What I mean here is that Kazan does not feel “far”.)

Firstly I saw one big mosque. I did not see any woman in burqa or hijab. I did not see anything in particular that would seem “far”. As my city of reference in Russia is Nizhny Novgorod, I am going to compare Kazan with it.

The Qolsärif mosque - the biggest mosque in Russia and Europe. Destroyed by Ivan the Terrible, rebuilt between 1996 and 2005.

The quality of life in Kazan seems to be much higher. People look richer as far as it concerns the way they dress, you would never be able to say that you are in Russia according to their clothes. In Nizhny Novgorod, you are sure that you are in Russia – many ushankas, shapkas, many coats of style that we know from our grandmothers.

In Kazan the population seem very young and dynamic.

There are hostels in Kazan!!! (in Nizhny there is no such a thing!)

The cars in Kazan are the western cars, the inomarky! (foreign brand cars). There are normal “city” cars. In Nizhny Novgorod, you can see many Ladas, many very old Russian cars and as in opposition to it huge Landrovers and Jeeps.

Moreover, the whole city is being under reconstruction – it is amazing how many houses – public houses and historical ones – under reconstruction I have seen!

Kazan Hotel in the nearest future? The City of Kazan spends yearly milliards of Rubles on the city reconstruction - Kazan is getting a face-lift!

There is enough taxis and the public transport seems to work well. It might also be due to the newly constructed metro (finished in 2000, cost 58 billion Rubles)! I haven’t seen any traffic jam even during the first snow day!

Metro of Kazan.

Finally, the people looked much nicer, opened and friendly.

As a tourist you can make these observations very quickly – without knowing the background, knowing the culture, knowing the details. But as a person, who feels the difference between the daily life of Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, you do not stop asking yourself questions about it. And here are some answers that I could find so far.

First explanation is really an easy one – everyone who knows a little bit the history of Nizhny Novgorod and knows that Nizhny Novgorod was the so-called “closed city” inaccessible to foreigners understands why people seem to be more “closed” here (sometimes I was the first foreigner they met), there are no tourist structures developped in Nizhny Novgorod (as it is not the tourist destination number one in Russia city), it is a place where to get Lada and national car brands is much cheaper than in Kazan (there, it is much cheaper to get european cars). I would think that the old Lada cars might be part of explanation for the traffic jams (as well as traffic lights synchronization, many accidents, buying of driving license instead of learning how to drive, etc.)

First snow and there is no collapse in Kazan!

Secondly, Tatarstan has a very good economical position. Not only that it has very rich oil reserves (it has the most important wells for the 2nd Baku pipeline), it has a very good industry production that makes up to 45% of its GDP! Apart from petrochemical industry, the major role plays machine building. Let’s give an example of KamAZ, huge truck-maker company that is the region’s largest enterprise and employs 1/5 of Tatarstan’s work force.  In Tatarstan, there is also one of the largest helicopter manufactures in the world! So we are dealing here with a very wealthy state here.

Very "European".

Thirdly, Tatarstan is a subject of Russian federation. Nothing new hein? Well, actually, it explains a lot. Russian federalism is a very specific one – 19 federative constitutions (out of 21!!!)do not correspond in the essential points to the Constitution of Russian Federation. That is what political scientists call “asymmetric federalism”. It might be enough to say that Tatarstan is the state with the most incompatible constitution of all Russian Federation subjects and that at the same time it has the biggest autonomy. But what needs to be added is that Tatarstan has fought  many times in its history for a complete independence from Russia which resulted in many declarations and amendments in factor to Tatarstan. Thanks to it, Tatarstan acts on the international scene as a proper state that is very prosperous to its economy of course! The separatist threat as well as its economic importance and politic weight (the central government seem to be dependent on support of its subjects a lot more that it seems), screw Russia’s budget. In order to keep the Russian integrity, the federal budget pays a lot of money to those countries. On the other hand, Tatarstan contributes to the federal budget as well (that is not the case of all subjects of Russian Federation).

Finally, how to explain the “secularized” look of Kazan? The main reason is that Islam in Tatarstan has evolved into the so-called “Euroislam” or “Jadidism”. It is an islamic ideology adapted to modernization and economic innovations. But Islam itself maintains a strong position because the Tatars feel it as a part of their culture and Russian Orthodox Church seems to be too oppressive for them. Moreover the Tatarstan territory had its first Islam settlement in 922 so it feels it as an important historical and cultural heritage. But still there is about 35 Orthodox Churches in Kazan! And even a synagogue.

If you are interested to learn more, I recommend you to read: “External Relations of Tatarstan, Neither Inside, Nor Out, But Alongside Russia” from A.S.Makarytchev and V.N.Valuev!

“Democracy is where people have good lives!”

Today I had a very interesting debate on democracy and a liberty of expression with one of our students. After a few minutes of misunderstandings I asked him to define what does democracy mean and asked him for a definition. He said: “Democracy is when people have good lives.” It might make you smile as it made me at first, but it is actually a very interesting and serious matter.

I dare to say that in “our european” reality, the word “democracy” is a part of our lives. We hear and read it everywhere: “democratic deficit, fight for democracy, democratic elections, democratic leader, …” And suddenly you face someone for whom “democracy” is an empty word. He also reads it everywhere but cannot join the word to a reality in his country (he is not from Russia, but his country cannot be neither defined as a democracy).

I am not saying, that “we, Europeans” are living in fully democratic states and that there are not any democratic deficits in our countries but surely we have at least some experience of it. The future political leaders and elites (futures alumnis of various universities) not always have the “luck” of experiencing democratic principles around them. And I got an impression that in ex-soviet countries this issue gets another form. Living in countries where democracy is not really developed to a certain level and where it makes the regime become some kind of hybrid state with some (very often few) democratic principals and rules, these people look for ways how to “improve their countries” in the future. They have this objective in head while reading critical and arguable articles on internet for example about EU states loosing their autonomy (I bet they must have read Vaclav Klaus ) and therefore they think of the EU as of a non-democratic organization and of european states as of “subjects” of the EU.  After reading a very critical essay on a state of democracy nowadays they get an impression that it does not exist at all. They get many information that represent already a polemic debate but they take it as a fact and they use it later in their own debates. So far it could be fine only if they knew and understood the basic theoretical concepts – something they could hold on while being confronted with those articles representing whoever’s opinion and the reality in their countries.

It turned up that for this boy there was not a difference between a parliament where the majority is held by one party (because there is practically no opposition, because the elections did not really went according to rules and it is like this for a long time already) and between a parliament where the party got elected legitimately and holds a parliamentary majority. He does not make any connection between a liberty of expression and its political meaning and results – no liberty of expression, little or no opposition (simply laid). Liberty of expression does not really meant much to him as for others of his classmates. I got a question: what is the liberty of expression good for? I am sure many people were asking it during the 1990′s and crises that was caused by the fall of Communism. And I expect such questions from the “older” generation than from students! Here, in Russia, people say directly – we do not have the liberty of expression. For them it is a fact, for them it is something they do not really want to change. What for?” It is like this”, they add often. And they accept it.

Living in countries where you do not really “meet” democracy often, you take it as it is – at least here it is like that. To give you a simple example, not many people support Putin, but not many of them will go and vote because they know already the result. Few days ago, it was predicted on TV that Putin will get 62% of votes. I add that this number is not based on research of public opinion. This number is just “suitable”. And the people here say, “it’s normal, it’s like that. Wait and see, he will get 62%.” For them democracy either is or is not. They do not feel it as something they could start demanding and therefore creating it…(taking is consideration their history, it is absolutely understandable but still). But if they do so, they should bear in mind that democracy is not always  and not only “where people have good lives.”