March 2, 2005
CAN WE JOIN THE CLUB?
Youth Groups Say the Time Has Come to Oppose Putin (Francesca Mereu, St. Petersberg Times, March 1st, 2005)
Two liberal youth movements joined forces on Thursday in their fight against President Vladimir Putin's policies and claimed the time was right for a mass pro-democracy movement in Russia similar to those in Ukraine and Serbia.The Yabloko party's youth wing and the fledgling youth movement Idushchiye Bez Putina, or Moving Without Putin, signed a pact to work together to fight against what they saw as Putin's increasingly authoritarian policies.
At a news conference in Yabloko's Moscow headquarters, the party's youth leader Ilya Yashin and Moving Without Putin's Moscow organizer Roman Dobrokhotov predicted Russia would soon have a student movement similar to those that organized successful street protests leading to changes of government in Ukraine and Serbia.
Ukraine's Pora, or It's Time, movement was credited with being the backbone of the opposition street protests in last year's Orange Revolution, while Serbia's Otpor, or Resistance, movement played a key role in protests that led to the toppling of President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
If such a movement were to form in Russia, the Kremlin would see its worst nightmare come true, political analysts said.
When a bandwagon gets going, there is no telling who will jump on.
Posted by Peter Burnet at March 2, 2005 6:26 PMWait a minute. Not five weeks ago, you said Russia was a democracy already, thanks in part to the ministrations of the Orthodox church.
I've been working in my garden, Candide-like. Did I miss something?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 2, 2005 8:13 PMSome democracies are more equal than others. But if you read it here you likely saw that one of Russia's problems is the damage done to its Orthodox base by seventy years of Communism.
Posted by: oj at March 2, 2005 8:17 PMHarry:
You musn't blame Orrin for my posts--Lord knows I don't want to be blamed for his. Good to see you back. Gardening, eh? Are you going to tell us about the speciation you saw going on all around you?
Posted by: Peter B at March 2, 2005 8:31 PMI didn't see any speciation, but lots of natural selection.
I agree that communism damaged Orthodoxy. I don't agree that even undamaged Orthodoxy had, or ever would have had, any truck with democracy.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 2, 2005 8:38 PMYes, your misunderstanding of the interplay of religion and democracy is comprehensive and in the case of the Soviet Union clouded even further by your faith in Socialism.
Posted by: oj at March 2, 2005 8:46 PMSympathy for confused Socialists like Chirac and Schroeder, or even someone like Allende, is one thing, but sympathy for tyrants is quite another.
Last week, Putin was measured by the plumb line; he probably has about 4-6 months to respond.
Posted by: ratbert at March 2, 2005 10:18 PMI have a lot of company, then.
The interplay of religion and democracy in Russia also escaped the very Christian statesmen of (more or less) democratic Europe in the early 20th century. They thought it was a despotism.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 3, 2005 1:34 AMOrthodoxy has a different relation with the State than does Catholicism. The standard view is 'G-d is the Tsar's Junior Partner.' Thus, the Church was not a hotbed of opposition to the Party as it was in Poland. At best, it was an ombudsman between the believers and the State, but under the Communists it was more just another form of internal espionage. When Russians talk about their faith, they do not talk about some great priest they heard or who inspired them, they talk instead of the simple faith of a grandparent. There is no Russian Bishop Jakes, let alone Wojtyla.
My innate cynical nature tells me that the Yabloko youth wing held its meeting at a wine and cheese party. They are not terribly representative of Russia. And Putin can do no better PR move than to drag out Old Stainhead to oppose him. Nothing else would be more effective to convince the Russian Mittelstand that he is on the right course.
Posted by: Bart at March 3, 2005 7:04 AMHarry:
Natural selection in your garden? Can't you just sit back for once and modestly agree when we insist your garden is a product of intelligent design?
Posted by: Peter B at March 3, 2005 8:43 AM