Mother-Russia, whither are you falling?
Hello! My name is Ilja. Today I want to tell you about the current state of Russia, my homeland. It's not a secret that the situation here is far from perfection, it's clear and all of us know it. About ten years have passed since the moment when it became a kind of "democratic federal republic", only a "kind of" and only in quotes. What has been done over the years? Almost nothing. "Nothing" means either: 1) Nothing was done at all during the years or 2) Both bad and good things were done and they have turned to nothing. Let's remember math. What will you get in the following task: 2+(-2)? Zero, of course. The same is right for real world. And Russia has variant (2). More, this bad things have overcome good ones and now this zero is slightly moving to "minus infinity". It is strange, but a lot of people connect many problems with Yeltsin's name. If you think this way then you are wrong. He is just a man, not god, with his pluses and minuses. But who is in fault of this? The Machine.
What Machine? The Machine of corrupted and diseased powers, which we have got as inheritance from USSR. It's not a secret that only in the beginning, the very beginning of it, the communists truly were communists. Later they simply turned to stealers. A common reflex of people who have the power. It's not an allegation, I can prove it. Commonalty couldn't live a normal life in this situation. More, analysis of Russian history leads me to the following point of view: Russia always lived this way. I don't speak about concrete people, there is always a place for kindliness, candour and high moral features and many Russians have them. But many, many people here have a very strange philosophy, I'd like to call it "mystery of Russian soul". Its main principle: "Let's steal until we will have no ability to do this." Awful, isn't it? The main problem of Russia, in my opinion, is being big, huge. Our powers can't control the situation in all our corners. That is why the economics is slightly breaking.
This was sort of introduction, now I want to tell you about the situation of the freedom of the word in Russia.
Maybe you heard this, maybe not, but there is one big channel in Russia: NTV. It's really democratic and it gives a more objective point of view than official channels. It is in trouble now. Our powers want to close it. Why? They say that it's the channel of opposition. Right, it is. But this is its right as stated in The Constitution - the paper whose real place is the water-closet. I've said only a few words and you can't feel exactly what I've said. During eight years this channel has become a truly democratic and national channel. Many people can't live without it. Now it has new chiefs - with an American businessman as a captain. People say that he has already gone bankrupt from several companies. And now he bought this new "toy".
Two events happened yesterday: "senator's speech" of the president Putin and the event I spoke all this time. In his speech the president was truly a symbol of "democratic Russia". This is a lie, trust me. Because at the same time there was an unlawful assembly of Gazprom directors who made a decision about the restructuring of NTV. What is Gazprom? It is an abbreviation for "Gas Industry", one of the owner of NTV. I underline, one of the owners. The stocks of NTV are spread among it and the foreign businessman. Also the Boston Bank Group has 4% of stocks to make sure that one of the main owners doesn't have an advantage against another owner. We see, that there are two owners, but only Gazprom accepted the final decision. That is why this decision is illegal. But The Power doesn't hurry to change the situation. And that is why the real speech of Putin was spoken at the assembly of directors of Gazprom, where the decision about NTV was accepted. THIS IS THE REAL FACE OF RUSSIA AND THIS IS THE REAL, HOWEVER HIDDEN MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT!!!
Do you believe that Putin is a good one? He worked at the KGB - an analog of FBI, and this says all. If you are not satisfied by this fact here's another. Do you remember the accident of "Kursk" submarine happened last year? I do. And many others too. Over a month the central press discussed this topic then, commenting the weakness of the power. It didn't accept Norwegian help for a week, for example. What for - powers said - we will do it for ourselves! They had "done" it - more than 100 innocent victims showed this. And while summing up the main facts about the last year in his "senator's speech", Putin didn't even say anything about this accident. This says all, I think.
The NTV staff did a kind of "assembly" in their studio, and this event was broadcast all over the whole country. Around 300 persons were in the studio, journalists and people of culture, advocates and simply good men. And they tried to say what will be if Russia loses NTV or simply argued their point of view. A communist (!) had said that "Yeltsin is a kind of social democrat when comparing to Putin". It's a great deal of symbolism there. You can say that Putin doesn't know all these things. It's a lie! He is the President, and he must know all significant facts! Gloom is surrounding us!
I'm tired of iniquity. By the way, do you know some things about lawsuits here? Almost every day I hear that: 1) Somebody has won an action against another one. 2) (A couple days later) This "another one" has rejected a decision of law-court and a couple days later there will be new process on this theme. There are no, in my opinion, guilty and innocent people in lawsuits, there are only the one who has a lot of money, good advocates and good contacts and another one who has less "weight" in community. And the first one wins, in most cases. I understand that in the normal world there's no oddity in rejecting a lawsuit's decisions but here... Trust me, here it often is only for an "extra possibility" for guilty people to escape from responsibility.
Enjoy!
A laugh over the tears...
Many other people and I can't live this way! But I don't see any exit from this trap.
Now I'm listening to the "Adagio for Freedom" by Acumen and finishing this article. "There will be the day..." Maybe... I wish it not to come too late...
What can I say in conclusion? I love my country, diseased but great Russia, in time when only hope stays changeless. And, how Fletcher Lind, a pupil of Jonathan Livingston seagull, said in conclusion of a great book by Richard Bach, "There will be the day when I will appear from the air on your shore and tell you something about the art of flight!" Let's trust him!
iliks
04.04.2001, with additions on 06.04.2001