Vertical of helplessness

Saturday clashes between young fascists and the police in the Manege Square just outside the Kremlin walls proved how shaky Russia’s stability is, though it is being promoted by the Kremlin and is taken as an example by other countries. The Russian authorities proved totally unable to manage with over 5,000 fans of Moscow’s football clubs, who instead of peaceful demonstration started to mess up in the capital’s center, shouting nationalist slogans. The murder of FC Spartak’s fan Yegor Sviridov, who was shot in a fight with people from the North Caucasus, and desire to draw attention to the problem of interethnic relations in Russia and actions of “ethnic groups” are believed the reason for the protests.

As a result of the “peaceful” demonstration in the Manege Square and adjacent streets several pedestrians of non-Slavic appearance were beaten up. According to the official data, 31 people were injured during the clashes, 66 were detained. No less impressive are the police reports published by the radio station Echo of Moscow: “A Kirghiz was found dead in the south of Moscow, he died of knife wounds. Three unknown persons shot at an Azerbaijani citizen with rubber bullets seven times in the city’s east. Interfax reports with reference to the police sources that a migrant, apparently from the Caucasus, was cruelly beaten up in the hall of the Aviamotornaya subway station. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries. There are also reports that six people suspected of beating up an Uzbek citizen were detained in the Tretyakovskaya subway station. The foreigner in grave condition was taken to hospital.”

This isn’t the first case of racist confrontations between Slavic young people and migrants from the North Caucasus and Central Asia, but the first one to show such scope and have such media coverage. Mounting racist moods in Russia, with its ineffective vertical chain of political command and “sovereign democracy,” is a syndrome indicative of a grave disease affecting the state.

Russia’s law enforcement agencies believe “leftist youth movement” activists were behind this unrest. Anyway, that was what Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev had in his report on what took place on Dec. 10, 2010, near the Kremlin, addressed to President Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian head of state approved of the Interior Ministry’s and its police units’ performance. He wrote in his Twitter account: “Everything is under control on Manege Square and in the country. All the inciters will be brought to justice. All of them, without question,” but offered no assessment of the situation. Russia’s opposition believes that there was nothing coincidental about this public unrest, that it was the result of the infective power vertical. Mikhail Kasyanov, ex-Prime Minister of Russia, leader of the People’s Democratic Union, told the coalition’s constituent convention “For a Russia Without Arbitrariness and Corruption” that this country needs a democratic change to the political system to prevent another revolution; that Russia has for the past several years lived only at the expense of high oil prices, but that almost all reserves have been exhausted. Ukraine should doubtlessly learn from all Russia’s lessons. This is especially true of Ukraine’s current political leadership that keeps parroting their Russian counterparts, including measures to stabilize the situation, control the media. The recent events in Russia are proof that neither the power vertical, nor “sovereign democracy” can adequately answer the challenges put forth by life itself. This can be done by an advanced civic society, never by a corrupt government machine where everybody waits for instructions from “upstairs.”