Solidarity's Kaliningrad drama has a follow-up
Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 6:24AM I already blogged about Solidarity's attempted privatisation [credit for this expression goes out to a comment by Maxim Kononeko] of the Kaliningrad protest, it looks like we have some very interesting developments...
The development revolves around Konstantin Doroshok, who was already brought to the attention of English speaking audience by Vladimir Kara-Murza. Doroshok was one of the organisers of the Kaliningrad protest, not the main leader as Kara-Murza's article would have you believe, and until recently Doroshok was also the local leader of Solidarity. Well he is not part of Solidarity anymore, he left or at least he took the local branch of Solidarity away from the All-Russian organisation.
His motivation is not quite clear but as soon as this story broke there appeared some talk about pressure being exerted on Doroshok by the FSB. The originator of this gossip is said to be Solomon Ginsburg, member of the regional parliament close to Doroshok. He reportedly said...
It is easy to understand Doroshok, he has three children and a pregnant wife. - said Ginsburg. He recounted that at night member of Solidarity's bureau Nemtsov called Doroshok and offered to help Doroshok who was receiving threats from certain people. Ginsburg said this was the work of FSB operatives. (1)
[source]
If that was true, the neo-liberal-Russophobic webs would be having a field day now, but they are by all accounts not. The reason lies in the inconsistencies of Ginsburg's testimony. It was reported by Kasparov.ru and Gazeta.ru that Ginsburg that these threats did not come from local FSB but from people on the federal level. Gazeta adds that this pressure could be linked to a large tax invoice Doroshok recently received (31 mil. RUB later lowered to 18,5 mil) for import and selling of cars, his main job.
However Ginsburg himself later said that his words were mangled up by the media. He said that there is a possible involvement of the secret service and the media took it as an established fact. He also corrected the information on Doroshok wife's pregnancy, she is not pregnant, however Doroshok is still blessed with three children. Later Ginsburg denied that there was any pressure exerted on Doroshok from FSB, he claimed in his blog that he contacted the Ministry of Interior and FSB and was told that no such steps against Doroshok were taken. Interesting approach indeed. He also wrote another interesting thing in his blog, take a look:
In my opinion, as 20 March [the date of a next planned demonstration] approaches, they will try to pit us against each other through planting disinformation in the central media. But we will attempt to clarify this disinformation simultaneously.
OK, whatever that is supposed to mean...Why does this blaming everything on the ominous, omnipresent, secret hand of the FSB remind me of something?
Things are probably much more relaxed. Doroshok himself said his reasons for departure were personal. Nemtsov and Yashin were expecting Doroshok's testimony to be something sensational, meanwhile Doroshok himself said in an interview given to Aktual'nye komentarii that people in Kaliningradian Solidarity do not want to be a branch of the All-Russian Solidarity and that the Moscow leadership is unpopular in Kaliningrad. In another interview given to Oleg Kashin Doroshok said that he talked with FSB on the matter of security of the upcoming demonstration, there were no threats made he added.
Doroshok was present at a meeting of Kaliningrad's political Live Journal bloggers where the participants were literally having laugh at the allegations of FSB intimidation. Blogger akimow wrote on his blog that 'without Doroshok, Solidarity is of no use to anyone in Kaliningrad.' The bloggers also said that Nemtsov, Milov, Yashin and Ka (don't know who that is) are viewed negatively by Kaliningradians, 'they are like are like a red rag to a bull...they are nobody, they do not exist.' Well, the red rag certainly exists for a bull, but you get the idea of the general attitude to those Gucci-clad, space invaders.
Political commentator Dmitri Orlov gives his own opinion on the matter, he said: 'People [probably meaning opposition] in Kaliningrad came to the understanding that their Moscow colleague simply made a use of their problems, acting in their own interests.' He thinks that 'Doroshok's departure from Solidarity proves the fact that alliance of the motorists with the opposition parties, Communists and Solidarity, is temporary.' 'The motorists have particular, corporate interests lacking political subtext.'
1) My translations have some contextual additions here.
Reader Comments (3)
I think one of the other protests group's leaders summarized the mood well when he said, "«Надеемся, что действия общественной организации «Справедливость» будут корректными, цивилизованными и не станут частью деятельности общероссийского движения «Солидарность», в котором часто преследуются личные политические амбиции их активистов, а региональные проблемные вопросы зачастую используются ими как повод для политического пиара»."
http://vz.ru/politics/2010/2/20/377719.html
The celebrity-activists from the capital are dragging down poor folks with real interests at stake.
Thanks for that comment...
;)