Looking West
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 6:29PM This is my second [the first is here] follow-up to my recent post on the failure of coloured revolutions...
Every now and then I come across some Russian individual claiming that the EU and NATO is the only possible future for Russia. I also noticed that St. Petersburg's branch of Oborona website features a photo from one of their demonstrations in the site-banner. There along side the Russian flag they also fly the flag of the EU. They actually believe it, they think that one day Russia will be a member of the EU and NATO. In fact, according to what I was able to read, they treat the West as a semi-divine, infallible entity, they worship it. Much like their Russophobic Western priests are all but certain about the infallibility of their idol, these individuals serve as obedient proselytes. Let me first attempt to dispel any potential EU/NATO fantasies and then I'll get to Russian liberal's attitude to the West.
A while ago during a seminar a question of how far the EU should expand was raised. I suggested that Russia could become part of the EU, I meant it as a joke. I explained that the historic core of Russia is situated in Europe and it has a quasi-European culture. My professor replied that it would be long before Russia ascends to the EU. He was right and that long period would be a protracted one in my opinion, if ever. Russia is union in itself and the largest country on Earth. Any enlargement of EU by Russia would therefore be an enlargement by several times. It would in process absorb such beacons of European civilisation as Chechnya, Bashkiriya and Chukotka. I also have doubts about the readiness of Brussels to finance this underdeveloped, Eurasian behemoth.
I can add doubts about the willingness of Brussels to share borders with Mongolia and call attention to how Turkey struggles to gain acceptance in Europe. To cut the long story short; the Russian liberals should wake up from their EU fantasies. What concerns NATO, I have a lot of questions. What's the point of Russia joining the NATO? What's the point of NATO? NATO has no real threats and is only used as means of extracting loyalty from European countries by the US. Even that doesn't work fully well all the time, states have their own interests that do not always match those of the US. I quite do not see how a security structure circumventing the entire Northern Hemisphere would be viable. I also do not see the point of having the majority of world's military power concentrated in one alliance. What would the alliance be against? Is it desirable for majority of Russian's to be bogged down in Afghanistan, to engage in bombing of Serbia? What would NATO be without a resurgent Russia? I mean, how many threats, real or imagined, does NATO have? Wouldn't removing one of them further expose the pointlessness of this organisation even further?
Russian liberals do not ask these kinds of questions. Why should they? These mindless clones are all about 'monkey see, monkey do.' Recently I made the Kompromat search the name 'Oleg Kozlovsky' and this is what fell out of it. It was discovered by a Pravda journalist that the reaction of the Russian liberal opposition to the 2008 war with Georgia was composed mostly of direct quotes of Condolezza Rice, the President of Estonia and other friends of Saakashvili. The Russian liberals, including Kozlovsky, Nemtsov, Yashin and Ponomarev all put their names underneath this mindless, plagiarised drivel. Does anything more need to be said? I think it is clear that these people have a pseudo-religious attitude towards their Western peers and are able to act contrary to Russian interests. They also show unique a ability to sell their own, personal, political interests in Russia for respect in the West, and of course the money that comes with it.
Enough of this! Here are some closing remarks...
I have experienced a second discovery [here is an account of my discovery of Russia blogs], this time of Russian blogs. I knew the LiveJournal was a vibrant place but needed some impulse to explore it. It all began when I felt something is not all right in the narrative of Kaliningrad protests as presented to us by the Western media, it has now become a bit of an obsession to me. There is so much material out there I could devote this entire blog to enlightening the Western audience on Russian liberals, and writing accounts of the latest, unreported in the West, liberal cock-ups.
Even then I would probably not be able to blog about everything. For example I completely missed out the recent rebuke given to Liberasts by the Commies, which Vladimir Kara-Murza tried to blame on the FSB according to the usual procedure the Liberasts use to cover up failure. [Russian source; English source] Anyway, I have other interests and will give the Liberasts a rest for a while.
However, the topic of Liberasty cannot be abandoned. It cannot be abandoned as long as we are being sold the illusion that is the Russian liberalism in Western press. Despite the group being a marginal and unpopular element of the opposition, the Russian liberals get an unprecedented coverage in the US and UK. We are being fed a fabricated image of a brave, intelligent, liberal, grassroots movement spearheading a revolution against Putin.
Oleg Kozlovsky looks brave in front of cameras when he is dragged away by the OMON but doesn't look brave enough when it comes to rebuking LaRussophobe. Grassroots movement is heavily financed by Western agencies and it was shown that this grassroots movement simply parrots what the West says, not much sign of intelligence here. Vladimir Putin isn't going anywhere!
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Finally let me address some accusations that are being leveled against me. I am being accused of slandering the Russian liberals in front of Western audience in a fashion reminiscent of those who slandered dissidents during the days of the Cold War. I am also being accused of thinking that Putin is awesome...
If there is anything I hate it is these types of anachronisms in the interpretation of contemporary Russia. Neo-Tsarist, Neo-Soviet, whatever... I do not write fictional slanders, who writes fiction here are the Western papers. I don't hate the Russian liberals simply because I find no reason to hate political idiots. What I hate are the fictional accounts of their achievements and failures.
As for Putin my position can be best summarised by an answer I gave to one of my classmates who praised Putin's achievements:
I think he [Putin] could be doing more!
I do not dismiss Putin's achievements the way Western press does but do not think they go far enough. Nevetheless, in my view Putin is infinitely better than Yeltsin who is being presented as an enlightened democrat. Yeltsin was a drunk fool who sent tanks against disobedient parliamentarians, he let few tycoons pull the strings behind his drunken corpse. These few influenced elections with their money while a large part of Russians were having a hard time to find something to eat. Now if that is what you think should be the right model for Russia, I rest my case. Russian liberal leaders, such as Nemtsov had their chance to shine during Yeltsin's period and they screwed up, if anything their own actions had consequences in the form of Putin coming to power.
The End
Reader Comments (5)
"Oleg Kozlovsky looks brave in front of cameras when he is dragged away by the OMON but doesn't look brave enough when it comes to rebuking LaRussophobe."
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Yup.
In America and elsewhere, people get dragged away by law enforcement for disturbing the perice, as in violating any number of given ordinances.
My own view is that both the EU and NATO are unsustainable. The EU is already unpopular, but the Brussels bureaucrats rather than cutting their losses and focusing on the popular measures (free travel, free trade) are becoming increasingly totalitarian in creating laws.
NATO is degenerating into a farce. Just look at the missile shields in Central Europe. The famous open letter about the importance of the missile defence shields that were to be installed to protect Europe from Iran and how important they were to protect America's allies from Russia!
@ Misha
AK's comment underneath my "The Unholy Alliance" article...I thought it would be good to repeat it before the post gets buried. The post is the last one on the main page now.
"Re-Kozlovsly and the Army. He has a medical condition preventing him from serving, though since he's fit to go on frequent demonstrations and meetings with foreign NGOs it's quite obvious it is faked. Not to condemn him over this - a lot of Russian men do this.
Thus, his induction into the Army was probably quite legal, albeit arbitrary and unfair (but not more so than the entire conscription system as it currently stands)."
@ Gregor
In the Czech Republic the politicians were assuring us that the radar would not be not directed against Russia, however the political commentators and media pundits had no problem admitting that the radar was in fact against Russia. The mild form of this was saying that the presence of US troops would restrain the Russian who are all but happy to roll with their tanks into Czech valleys.
I saw thatr one Leos.
A kudos to this excerpt from your above post:
"Finally let me address some accusations that are being leveled against me. I am being accused of slandering the Russian liberals in front of Western audience in a fashion reminiscent of those who slandered dissidents during the days of the Cold War. I am also being accused of thinking that Putin is awesome..."
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Consider the slant of those making such a claim. What they say can be thrown right back at them and with an arguably greater validity.
Someone recently said similar things about me. I calmly explained in detail how off the mark that person was. I haven't heard back from him. Some folks prefer appearing in managed (very restricted) situations, where their views aren't so challenged.
This point shouldn't be confused with the advocacy of unsubstantiated diatribes.
The Serbs are moving towards EU/NATO integration. A good barometer of how appealing it would be to Russia
I don't see how Russia could be part of the EU. It is far too big a country and the combination of Britain and the former Warsaw pact countries would vote against Russia in the European parliament. Litvenenko and Scaramelo (whatever his name is) provided reports to the EU parliament on the activities of the FSB who was later arrested himself by Italian police for weapons smuggling.