Muzhdabayev didn’t raise another statement Navalny is often challenged about, his slogan, “Time to Stop Feeding the Caucasus”, a slogan at the “Russian Marches” which is as much about prejudice as it is about corruption. Some opposition members have tried to justify the call by saying it’s actually a demand to cut off corrupt government leaders in the Caucasus or human rights abusers such as Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechnya; some even style it as a kind of Randian demand to turn bids for independence into economic self-sufficiency. Sobchak, however, did take up Navalny’s controversial plan: When I say “That’s Enough Feeding the Caucasus,” this means [indicted businessman] Akhmet Bilalov. What’s going on around the Northern Caucasus Resorts is a typical story which wouldn’t happen if the idea of the campaign “That’s Enough Feeding the Caucasus” were applied. “That’s Enough Feeding the Caucasus” means so that under cover of national special features, the local raj and the clans do not create strange organizations which suck money out of the federal center like a vacuum cleaner, and steal from their already impoverished population. It’s about the struggle against those who race along the demolished roads of Makhachkala and Nalchik in their Gelendvagens, shooting in the air and looking haughtily at a population picking cherries so as to feed their families. Navalny says “there must be law and order” in the North Caucasus as throughout the whole country; no one will stand for the creation of “offshore regions,” from which “bandits will come, dance the lezginka, shoot in the air outside, kidnap and murder people, and then return there and avoid punishment.” He spoke of the irritation people had with “shaggy shepherds with FSB, Interior Ministry and Investigative Committee IDs who sit in the President Hotel, scare everybody and commit crimes. The irritation with them is one hundred times worse in the Caucasus. There they terrorize the whole population, people live in poverty. What is happening with Ingushetia and Dagestan? Terrible poverty of the population and super-wealth for the ruling clans.” They must understand in the Caucasus that we want to live together in a European secular state where there is tolerance for other religions, where it is not proper to shoot outside during a wedding, where the rights of women are respected and it is not acceptable to shoot a person with a paintball gun even if she has a very short skirt. If some woman is not behaving as accepted, this is a problem for her alone, her husband and her parents, and not some sort of morals police. Uniformity of laws must be ensured, residents of the North Caucasus must not protect the extremists and the freaks who do such things under the excuse of cultural features. Navalny rejects the claim that nationalism stains his reputation and describes his views as “centrist” and “conservative”. Many don’t like it that I have a dialogue with people whose life has many outward effects – the “Russian Marches” and so on, they see a threat in this. I rather see a threat in not engaging in this. You can’t just leave the conservative agenda to anyone. Both I and Leonid Parfyonov, who I love very much, must say that Russia is in second place in the number of illegal migrants, and first place in the use of heroin, and heroin is brought here by migrants in order to somehow feed themselves. If we don’t speak of this and believe that these are some sort of horrible nationalist topics, then people will talk about this who believe the solution is to just whack them over the head. I am glad that I am one of the few politicians who can find cooperation both with liberals and nationalists. I simultaneously cross myself at Russian Orthodox cathedrals and am friends with Leonid Parfyonov. I don’t think he has any problems with this. Ultimately, Navalny’s competition is Putin, not the other opposition candidates. Sirokin quotes an interview where Navalny said, “I would forgive Putin a lot if he were a Russia Lee Kuan Yew. Yes, he would install totalitarian policy, but he would chase the crooks even so. But Putin can’t become a Russian Lee Kuan Yew. He can’t even become a Russian Lukashenka.” Sirokin asks if Navalny is prepared to become a Russian Lee Kuan Yew: We shouldn’t think up idols. We have to take the good things and the correct, tested experience. What Lee Kuan Yew did in the area of economics and fighting corruption was amazing and we should orient ourselves to that. What he did in the era of politics is absolutely unacceptable for any European country and will never be accepted in Russia. The country needs a man who will lead Russia on the path of European development, relying hard on principles of legality and ruthlessly destroying corruption like Lee Kuan Yew and several other Asian rulers. If there is a Third Way for Russia, then it’s in this. interpretermag/navalny-answers-the-hard-questions-with-hard-answers/
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:07:54 +0000
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