BLOGGING MIRRORS

After the Russian opposition rallies last weekend several participants were hospitalized. I got my hand broken , and I am also being examined for internal organs damage, Sergey Gulyayev, former St.Petersburg city parliament member told the daily newspaper Kommersant on Monday. In the ward next to mine there lies a partially disabled man Alexander Kazantsev. The militiamen have broken his ribs, which penetrated the lungs , an now his breathing is possible only through a plastic tube . Another man lying next to me, Boris Likhtenfeld, had his feet injured so bad he has to use crunches to walk . A young woman, Olga Tsepilova is taken to the neurosurgery department . She was hit with a baton repeatedly, her left half of the face is a mess, Gulyayev said.

This was a quote from the newspaper's report on the peaceful rally in St.Petersburg on 15 April, whose organizers, contrary to those in Moscow on 14 April, did not even try to break the cordon around the square reserved for them – a cordon built up of thousands of militiamen. The participants of the rally were rudely attacked after it was already over and they were on their way home.

Several days have passed. The speaker of the Russian parliament said Wednesday that he fully supported the actions of the militiamen.

By the way, the Russian parliament was also proclaimed to be “no place for discussion” a couple of months ago.

With only one Russian television channel, two radio stations and but a handful of newspapers really covering the rallies, the only place for discussion left is the RUnet, the Russian-language internet. And that is what I spent hours long scrutinizing. Luckily, Russian search engines allow search directly in blogs.

What do Russian bloggers say about the recent events?

Most of them express disdain towards all government officials, except for Putin.

Apparently following Putin's anti-Western moods, most bloggers are convinced the rallies had been financed by Western countries.

Some even demand to “break the opposition leaders' bones” as they are purposefully stirring the waters that had finally become stable.

The more reserved bloggers sneer at the rally organizers, saying they are no serious opposition leaders but only provocateurs who do not stand a chance to win in a normal political battle. (I don't know what sort of political battle they consider normal. I had always thought it was that of a public debate, which Putin's men never organized or taken part in).

Finally, the opposition rally organizers are said to have a single desire to re-distribute the private property once again.

To react to the average Russian blogger, I would use another quote. A quote from a man who had worked in the system, has left it demonstratively and remains one of the top intellectuals in the Russian economic analysis. Andrey Illarionov.

The creation of the new model of the Russian state is more or less finished . It is a coercive model . Its main trait is the application of power and violence that recognizes no limits, such as law, tradition or moral. It is coercive politics . It is coercive entrepreneurship . It is coercive legal procedures . It is coercive foreign politics . The first conclusions can be drawn.

What we often hear about is the alleged danger that the country would break apart. That is a myth. The only part of the country that has already in fact become independent from Russia is Chechnya , and it has become that thanks to the actions of the current Russian leadership. The real danger that we face is not the break-down of the country on the political map, but the break-down of the state as a functioning system . Judging by any indicators of a functioning state, the current situation is worse than even that of the late 1990s. Among such indicators are the rule of law, its enforcement, equality of citizens in the face of the law, division of power, civil liberties, political rights, freedom of speech, freedom of the media – all of that are the necessary elements of a constitutional state. Where we are today is simply incomparable to the late ‘90s. If I may say so, it is even quite funny how the officials who come from secret services and similar organizations, and are still involved in those organizations, have claimed the strengthening of the Russian state as their goal, but instead have achieved such a break-down of the state's main institutes as someone whose goal was directly opposite. This was unheard of in the ‘90 s .

As far as safety is concerned , simple safety for most citizens , the level of violence against the common Russians today is two and a half times higher than in 1998, when the country was plunged in a deep financial and economic crisis.

For those of you who read Russian, you can read the whole of Andrey Illarionov's interview on Radio Free Europe's website.

I will only leave you with more questions. Is that the stability that some fear the opposition is trying to stir? And won't the coercive methods some day turn against those who demand violence against others?

I know blindness comes from ignorance. But I am scared. If even bloggers, the web-literate inhabitants of the metropolis write those words, I can only imagine what the people of the Russian intoxicated and manipulable village will believe. I see they have already bought the story that the 90's were “the worst years”, that's what I hear everyone say lately. I am sure I did not read such blogging back then.