Window On Eurasia: Economic Crisis Puts Moscow, Russian Regions On Collision Course
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posted by eagle on October, 2009 as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, October 30 – Moscow and Russia’s regions are now on a collision course, one in which the regions, in many cases devastated by the economic crisis, need more resources and authority to cope, are confronted by a central government which is further tightening control over revenues even as it holds regional leaders responsible for solving problems in their areas.
Most commentators on the situation in Russia have focused either on the problems of individual company towns – the so-called Pikalevo problem – or on the economic situation in the country as a whole. But statistics published by Russian state statistics administration yesterday highlight just how differently the economic crisis has hit different regions.
For the country as a whole, industrial production has fallen ten percent and per capita incomes four to five percent over the last ...
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Window On Eurasia: Khrushchev’s Anti-Religious Drive Helps Explain Russian Orthodox Attitudes toward Stalin
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Urbanna, October 28 – Fifty years ago, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev launched the most sweeping anti-religious campaign in the USSR since the very first years of Soviet power, a campaign the recollection of which continues to help explain why so many Russian Orthodox leaders and the faithful have a far more positive attitude toward Stalin than others might expect.
Most people in the West and many members of the Russian intelligentsia have a positive image of Khrushchev because of his attacks on Stalin and of his shift away from the longtime Soviet dictator’s totalitarian system, but many in the Russian Orthodox Church remember Khrushchev not for that but for his concerted effort to wipe out the church in 1959-1964.
During that period, Khrushchev, who has been celebrated for his “liberalization” of the Soviet system, closed down ...
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Window On Eurasia: Russia Needs A Nationalities Ministry To Prevent Assimilation, Eurasian Group Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, October 27 – In order to stop the nations of Russia from “disappearing quietly and without notice,” the Russian section of the International Movement for the Defense of the Rights of Peoples has called for the creation of an ombudsman to defend these groups and also the re-establishment of a ministry for nationality affairs.
At a meeting this week in Volgograd, Pavel Zarifullin, the coordinator of this group, said that “every day another people disappears from the face of the earth” and that in the Russian Federation, “the russification of all peoples is taking place so strongly” that in two or three generations, even the Tatars will not exist (geopolitica.ru/Articles/788/).
But this process, which reflects the forces of globalization, is affecting not only relatively smaller groups but also large peoples like the Russians, Zarifullin ...
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Window On Eurasia: Russian Security Officers May Have Murdered Ingush Opposition Figure, Yevkurov Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, October 27 – Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov says that “the force structures could have taken part” in the murder of Maksharip Aushev, because “officers of law enforcement organs sometimes participate in fights among bandit groups.” But that does not mean, he adds, that “the powers that be have given them such taskings.”
Yevkurov’s statement, made in an interview on Ekho Moskvy and published today in “Vremya novostey,” calls attention to what may be the most disturbing aspect of this latest murder of an opposition figure: the increasing extent to which those nominally in power do not effectively control Russia’s security agencies (www.vremya.ru/2009/198/4/240437.html).
And while Yevkurov added that he was “inclined” toward a different explanation for this murder, the Ingushetia president’s willingness to acknowledge this possibility likely is more immediately significant: After all, his predecessor ...
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Window On Eurasia: Cossacks Increasingly See Themselves As Moscow’s Victims, Not Its Agents
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, October 26 – Most non-Russians and many Russians as well think of the Cossacks as little more than a paramilitary force of the Russian state, but many Cossacks have defined themselves as a separate nation and argue that Moscow has oppressed them in many ways just as harshly as it has other ethnic communities.
Because the Russian government has co-opted most of the leadership of Russia’s 13 Cossack hosts – in much the same way that it has the leaderships of that country’s non-Russian nationalities – and because the Cossacks share many elements of Russian nationality, including attachment to the Orthodox Church, such attitudes are typically ignored by the media.
But articles in the Russian blogosphere suggest both that an increasing number of Cossacks view themselves as victims and are prepared to act as an ...
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