Posted on 03/25/2022 10:21:50 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Captain Farid Chitav and 11 his subordinates from Russian National Guard (Росгвардия) refused to go to Ukraine. Their regiment from Krasnodar was ordered to Ukraine and they objected. They said that they don't have a foreign passport and thus can't cross Russian border legally
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/25/12-national-guards-appeal-dismissal-for-refusing-to-invade-ukraine-a77081
They said that crossing Russian border without a foreign passport (you need for travelling abroad) is illegal and constitutes a felony 322 УК РФ. Thus they can't go. What happened to them? They were all fired. Now they are suing their commandment for firing them illegally
That's very important case for understanding Russian state and well, almost any state in this world. When we are analysing its practices we often use imbecile, meaningless categories like "legal/illegal". Let me introduce much better term - "procedural"
Practices of state, including the Putin's state may not be legal. They absolutely can break Russian law on every level. But that does *not* mean they're random or chaotic. Nope. They're very procedural, much more than regular people can imagine
We often describe Kafka's works as absurdist. But they're not absurdist at all. Kafka was a highly competent and successful bureaucrat valued by his superiors. His narratives are logical. Except it's not human logic, it's procedural logic, logic of a machine
Consider Stalin's purges. They're often described as illegal. Yes, Stalin's state security broke Soviet laws on every level, constantly. But that doesn't mean their actions were chaotic or fully capricious. Nope. They followed procedural logic of bureaucracy
What was the procedure of Stalin's purges? To convict someone, you need to get a confession, "The Queen of all evidences" as Vyshynsky told. After you did get it, you can do whatever with a convict. But you still must get it, there's no way around that. He must confess himself
Of course that created a vast grey zone. State security usually couldn't convict anyone without confession. So they would interpret it very, very broadly. If you say something (however innocent), they can qualify as a confession, you're done. So just shut up or deny everything
A real case. In 1935 NKVD got an anonymous letter that a bunch of Kazan University students are gathering for political talks. One of them is mocking Stalin and Communism, others laugh. Ofc all of them were arrested and interrogated - what did happen exactly?
The guy who joked about Stalin denied everything. His several other friends denied, too. Nope, he's a true Communist and would never mock Stalin, no way. Only two guys responded - yeah, he indeed mocked Stalin, we heard it. Guess what? These two went to jail, others were released
From a human perspective this doesn't make sense. Obviously these two were more willing to cooperate with NKVD and betray their friends? And yet, only they were punished. From procedural perspective it makes total sense. You need to get *anything* that passes for confessions
"I didn't mock Stalin" - doesn't pass for confession
"I never heard him mocking Stalin, he's praising him every day" doesn't pass
"Yes, he mocked Stalin all the time, he's a traitor" - it is a confession. You just confessed you listened to the treasonous talk. To GULAG you go
Again from a standpoint of human logic that's crazy. You jailed these two for listening to treasonous talk but released the one who did this treasonous talk? Yeah, but he didn't confess. Procedural requirements are not met. They did. Procedural requirements are met. Go to GULAG
Let me give you another example. In 1937 the Great Purge and mass arrests started. One guy in St Petersburg belonged to hereditary nobility. He knew he'd be arrested. And they'll be extorting confession. He can deny everything, but they can torture him to death. That's suboptimal
He acted smarter. During the night he went to a store, broke a window. Got inside, filled his bag with valuable stuff and waited for police to come. They came, arrested him. He got 5 years of jail for robbing a store *as a regular criminal*. That's how he survived the Great Purge
If he lived his regular life, he'd be arrested as a political criminal. That's the end. They'd investigate him for more political crimes, adding more charges. But now he chose a different track. Regular criminal track was so much better than a track of a spy/counterrevolutionary
Again that doesn't make sense from a human perspective. If he did a robbery, why can't he also be a spy? But procedurally speaking, it makes total sense. Normal criminals are investigated by regular police. Politicals - by state security. These two different tracks don't mix
So you either wait till state security comes to arrest you for a political crime. Then you are done. Or you can go commit a regular crime to be arrested by regular police. Then you get on a regular criminal track and will be safe in jail. NKVD won't come for you, you're saved
You must fully understand that you're not dealing with humans but with a machine. It's working procedurally, according to a certain algorithm which is ofc full of bugs. Which can be exploited. That's what constitutes much of difference between the poor and the rich in any country
The poor stupidly believe they're dealing with humans. Thus they "follow the rules" and get screwed. Absurd as it may sound, they may even feel proud for following the law, following the common procedure without demanding any special privileges. Of course these idiots will suffer
The rich know they're not dealing with humans but with a procedural mechanism. It can and must be hacked, you just need to find a bug. And they will actively look for it. A rich *will* demand a special treatment and make a case why he deserves it. And they often get it
Consider the Z-invasion. Who was sent there? Well, kids of imbecile broke ass bumpkins who are so brainless that they actually follow the law. Well, if the law says everyone should serve in the army, defend the country, who am I too object? Thus they feed their kids to Moloch
Rich kids don't get to the trenches no matter what is written in the law. Why? Well because smart people don't give a crap about the law. For a smarter, successful person the law is not a moral imperative, but a stupid algorithm to be hacked. And they'll figure out how to hack it
Let's sum up. Legality/illegality is a bad tool for analysing human institutions. Too much moral pathos, too little substance. Much better concept is procedurality. Policies may not be legal, but they absolutely are procedural and thus have bugs which make them easy to hack
Rich smart people correctly understand this procedural nature of human institutions. Thus when dealing with them they have only one question - how to hack them? They are actively looking for bugs, find them and get what they want, in the forms of "privileges" or special treatment
Dumb and poor on the other hand do not understand this procedural nature of institutions. They're so stupid that they see not only human qualities but even a sort of moral authority in a soulless machine. Of course they get screwed. That's how it should be.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if we had just robbed liquor stores in Leningrad so we would be out by now, along with having one final drunken party before arrest. - Freddy Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr's more pragmatic brother.
Ukraine is a country of over 40 million people and you can find single instances of anything including drag queens.
What is representative of Ukraine is their society-wide brave and effective resistance, where they are kicking Russian ass.
Russia now has Day 30 of their 3-day war at their hands and things are not going their way. They’re losing! You must be devastated by the latest developments!
I like the “stupidity” that Ukrainians have much more than that of Russians.
Russians said, “we will submit to the Czar - he will take care of us and treat us well.”
Ukrainians said “we will win” despite all the “smart people” saying they’ll lose in 3 days and they should just stop resisting and asking for more ammo and weapons.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister shared a detail from the negotiations from the 25th of February, where he was asking Germany for war materials and German officials said - “What for? Your army is going to lose in the next 6 hours.”
So let me get it straight.
What you’re saying is that what we thought is the Mighty Russian Army has their asses handed to them not by tough Ukrainian men, but by prancing genderfluid queers?
I’m almost finished reading for 2nd time. Couldn’t be much better today. The hardships/death sentences of the gulags should be read by all.
Your comment is correct about the Napoleonic/Roman Law countries, but regarding travel passports (zagranpassports) in Russia, bribes are absolutely not required. It is an enumerated constitutional right of Russian citizens to leave the country. Issuance of a zagranpassport requires the filling of an application and the payment of a fee (5000 rub for paper application, 3500 rub for electronic). You go to the office for a photo and fingerprints, and get your passport in 3-4 weeks. It is a very matter-of-fact process, very much like getting a US passport except that the photos need to be done in the office.
When I was in the USAF, 68-72, I traveled throughout the world just using my USAF ID card. No questions asked.
I have zero concerns about Ukraine and their ‘tribal’ affairs within their country, nor what Russia does there or not. It’s their business.
I don’t consider it bravery when men are forced to fight in a war not of their choosing but demanded by a puppet master in the hand of outsiders - using the people to fight a proxy war..... And they would have no reistence without the USA.
Nor would they have entered this war without the Biden Administration enciting it.
Ukraine’s a rubble, population has left and every day more people die and you want to say that Russia’s loosing! LOLOL It’s a war that Ukraine has not won nor can it. There are no winners in their war.
You should know Croatians and every other nation is on the ground....Syrians, dead beats, the list goes on....but if you want to confirm the photo have at it.
What? They don’t put on dresses?
I agree with your point that they will probably just issue him a passport. The entire thing is a dumb procedural issue.
With regard to the bribes, current generation Russian biometric zagranpassports are produced centrally in Moscow (by Goznak, I think). No bribe (even if you could convince someone to take it) at your local MVD will make it go faster.
In general, the migration division of MVD is one of the most professional, well-run, parts of the Russian government right now. I can tell you this from personal experience.
You mean you don’t recognize the picture???
Didn’t recognize it, but now I searched.
My first thought was that it is JP Belmondo. Probably primed to it because he sadly died recently (RIP).
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