Posted on 01/26/2011 9:57:37 PM PST by struwwelpeter
Putting the phrase ‘airport bombing’ into my search engine yielded some unexpected results. I read it and could not believe my eyes. Could this really be?
Hundreds of thousands of citizens in various cities across the country are participating in protests against the terrorists who organized the bombing of the airport. In the capital at least a million inhabitants are demonstrating under the banner: “For peace, for life, for freedom - against terrorism!” The demonstration is supported by more than 500 political parties and public organizations, and was started by the nation’s leading labor unions. Taking part in it are government officials, leaders of the ruling party and other political factions, prominent politicians, scientists, and artists.
This, of course, is not Russia. It is a different airport, and a different country. This was Spain four years ago, also in January, after an attack arranged by Basque separatists at Madrid’s Barajas airport. Actually, I should have guessed: where are these 500 political parties? What labor unions? And what politicians took part in a protest march? Ivanov and Gryzlov? Zhirinovsky and Kadyrov? Either my eyes have grown dim, or I need to get new glasses.
On the other hand, why is it not possible here?
Really, do any of our so-called politicians, leaders in Parliament, or artists and writers support terror? Is anyone in the irreconcilable opposition for it? Or the clergy? God forbid, the Grand Mufti even promised these alleged martyrs the Hell fires. So why is it possible in Spain, but so difficult to imagine happening here? It is worse than difficult - it is absolutely unthinkable.
The answer is known: in Spain there is a government and civil society, while in Russia there is this vertical mess, from top to bottom. This answer, however, is incomplete. It lacks some clarifying language and concepts, and a word that means the exact opposite of ‘solidarity’, a very distinct concept that would explain why the idea of a million demonstrators in Moscow, under the banner of “Freedom from terrorism” seems a wild idea indeed.
As a matter of fact, who would even come to such a demonstration? Putin, together with Limonov? Fanatics hand in hand with aspiring liberals? Kirkorov and Akunin? You could ask any one of them - they are all against terrorism, and, in general, have nothing against freedom.
Is society too deeply divided? It is also so in the West, but at least over there they still have battles in parliament that reach a fervor that we have all but forgotten over these last ten, as they say, happy years. Is society too worried about other things? The global economic crisis is also a problem in America and Europe. Is it because of ethnic issues? Both here and there it is a common headache, but when a catastrophe occurs over there it brings people together.
Over here it divides.
Every act of terrorism in Russia summons almost nothing but sadness and hatred, but mostly hatred - a blind, visceral hatred that is multidirectional. Hatred towards immigrants from the Caucasus who, it is commonly believed, send their suicide bombers to Moscow. Hatred towards the State that fails to protect its citizens. Hatred toward the army of the State that covers itself in immortal glory in Chechnya. Hatred towards the liberals who brought down ‘such a nation it was’. Hatred towards nationalist patriots and their xenophobia that promises the ultimate destruction of Russia. Hatred towards the rich and fat who dig around in their rubles. Hatred towards the ‘sheeple’.
Who actually suffers in the search for an appropriate reason? In Russia there is a sluggish civil war that manifests itself in many ways, and sometimes not so sluggishly - in pogroms and stabbings. Almost daily reports from the North Caucasus, where the population is at war with local and visiting law enforcement, set an example for the “maritime guerrillas” (a group of ultra-nationalists in the former Baltic republics who conducted attacks against corrupt police officers - ed). Terrorism, which for so long has entirely been anonymous, finally allows for any interpretation.
Really, who blew it up? Was it Doku Umarov or one of his bearded comrades entrenched in the mountains? It may very well be. The security services will pick up the Caucasian scent and no doubt in six months we will receive reports that there was a battle near a village with an unpleasant name where the last of the scoundrels who planned the attack on Domodedovo were killed. Was it because Putin is running for a third term? This is a very popular theory, though it is unclear why he would repeat it and why he would be elected. Force of habit, I guess. Was it a dispute between economic entities that were unable to peacefully share the airport? No matter how crazy the conspiracy, in certain circles it is discussed in earnest. Was it the machinations of the West? After Beslan, the leader of the nation spoke openly about this, though now he remains strangely silent. Was it a conspiracy by taxi drivers?
Our main trouble is that within our divided, poorly controlled and muddled country one can suspect literally anything for being the reason why no one would show up at a rally with anyone. And the matter here is not about demonstrations, which really are not a very professional method of combating terrorism. The fact is that civil war demands a lot of “truths” in the absence of a core truth. There is an acute shortage of a sense of rightness in the fight against terrorism. Terrorism is incomprehensible, and so it is particularly frightening and effective. The only salvation is an almost narcotic oblivion that denies continuity to a civil war - until the next mass beating, pogrom, or terrorist attack. The only difference between this civil war and a classic one is that this civil war has no end in sight.
Your translation?
Yes, sorry for the typos. Fat finger syndrome, and a lot of liberties taken in trying to make it understandable to people who didn’t grow up in insane asylums.
‘Twelve’ of Putin
Twelve years ago our country, shaken by bombings in Moscow, Volgodonsk and the Ryazan ‘exercise’ (when FSB agents planted explosives in an apartment building in Ryazan - ed), was presented a nondescript bureaucrat as her Savior.
Russia’s womanly, trusting soul reached for the gangster major from Dresden who promised to “p--- on all our enemies in the outhouse” (a favorite saying of V.V. Putin – ed).
The caring hands of the most notorious villains of the stormy 1990s - Abramovich, Voloshin, Yumashev, and Berezovsky - gently sat him in the Kremlin gallery. So fiercely did he grip to power, however, it now seems he will never be dislodged from there.
Every new tragedy during these 12 years, each of which would seem to demonstrate that the king is naked, this magical witch doctor has enveloped in new orders, promises, threats, and increased authority.
So it was after ‘Nord-Ost’. So it was after Beslan. And so it is this time.
There was a lot of grim symbolism during yesterday’s tragedy at Domodedovo. Few, however, remember the exact words Our Nation’s Savior spoke during his finest outhouse hour:
“We will pursue the terrorists everywhere. If they’re at the airport – we’ll get them at the airport. So, you really must excuse me, if we catch them on the toilet, in the end we’ll p--- on them. And that’s it – problem permanently solved.”
Carefully reread these immortal words, uttered nearly 12 years ago. Now this subject urgently requires that we give him the right to protect us in airports for another 12 years.
Ah yes, we have a commander-in-chief, and the image-makers have now taught Uncle Volodya to resolutely knit his brow.
He must once again call on us to “utterly destroy” and punish everyone, even “those who wash the clothes and cook the soup of terrorists.” Knowing full well the mores of our terrorist fighters from the far provinces, who travel to the Caucasus as if to a job site, Our Savior and Defender of the Holy Throne cannot but understand that the only result of his television appeals will be a significant increase in the number of extrajudicial executions of those who have nothing to do with militants, and reprisals against the families of suspects.
While this, in turn, will swell the ranks of suicide bombers and lead to new terrorist attacks on Russian territory that, once again, our valiant security services will be unable to prevent.
P.S. Dear citizens, do not bother being “outraged” that this author “did not condemn” the terrorists and “did not express” sympathy for the victims of the tragedy. All of us, including this author, are the victims of terrorists, whether yesterday, today, or tomorrow, and all of us have contracted for a quarter century in the Struggle against Terror.
In March of last year, my daughter and grandson were on their way to school, and left the subway station at Culture Park just five minutes before the blast.
Andrei Piontkovsky, in ‘Grani.ru’, January 25th, 2011
http://www.grani.ru/opinion/piontkovsky/m.185643.html
Thank you for sharing that. An easy and entertaining read. Better than a lot of the news trash produced here in the States.
Thanks for the book tip. Not the genre of material I read, but I’m due for a diversion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.