Putin's Russia - making the Soviet Union look good

With all the news about Iraq, Afghanistan, and now North Korean nukes, I thought I'd take some attention to another equally important problem: Russia, and Russian political culture. Over the weekend, one of the most acclaimed Russian journalists, Anna Politkovskaya, was assassinated by a hitman so confident that he left the murder weapon in the elevator where she was shot. Famous for her coverage of the Chechin Wars, she was likely killed on orders by the central government.

As if murdering the media wasn't bad enough, Russia has taken to bullying neighbouring Georgia in the last few weeks. Starting (recently, at least) over the spying accusation of four Russians by the Georgian government, even though they have long since returned them to Russia, the Russians continue with an economic blockade of key Georgian products, have prevented all shipments from crossing the Russian-Georgian border, raided Georgian businesses in Russia, and have started drawing up lists of people with Georgian names for potential deportation. Drawing up lists of people with particular names to ensure you know where they are, closing down their local businesses -- hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar.

Now, 'a mild form of ethnic cleansing' might be going to far since I would reserve the phrase 'ethnic cleansing' for situations that seriously merit it, but this episode, along with the murder of the journalist, is troubling in many ways. Sections of the Russian popular are becoming increasingly hypernationalist in character, stressing themes of homogeneity and 'Slavic' culture, themes that are being picked up by government policies. In a presentation given in Edinburgh last year, a visiting academic polled Russians on attitudes about minority groups seen as 'deviant' to mainstream culture, which resulted in 25% support for the 'liquidation' of homosexuals, for instance. This is a serious problem, though all is not lost yet, as there is still some opposition to such policies. Still, the way in which Russia can get away with flagrant abuses on a smaller and weaker neighbour whose only real offence was to apply for NATO membership is worrying, and hopefully does not point to a stronger destructive nationalist movement attempting to resurrect the 'glory' of the Soviet (or Tsarist Russian, depending on their model) Empire.