Cossacks refuse to expel father of terrorist

[MeMyselfAndI]

Stavropolie Cossacks are still not ready to answer whether there is a place in their ranks for the father of accused terrorist Vitali Razdobudko or not? Many who know him say unanimously Yuri Razdobudko is a good man, already overwhelmed with grief, why expel him, it will finish him off.

- We cannot take away his Cossack status, because he has birthright, he was born a Cossack... About expulsion from the community, this can only be done by a decision of a great circle [annual meeting of all Cossack elders of the particular region]. We will get together, and vote. Such is the mechanism here, - comments the chief of staff of Pyatigorsk regional Cossack community of Stavropolie Cossack society, Теrek Cossack army, Dmitry Necheporuk.

- Whether father answers for son, or son for father, that's philosophy. This is not 1937 now. But, change of religion by the son, could well be reason for expulsion not only for the father, but Razdobudko's elder son from the community. The orthodox faith is a requirment for a Cossack. If majority of Cossacks here decide that the father failed in upbringing of his sons, it will be enough to remove him from our ranks, - says another local Cossack Mikhail Sergienko.

As for the Razdobudko family store, it has been closed until the situation is resolved one way or the other. This was decided not by Cossacks, but by the administration of the market where the Razdоbudkо do their business.



http://stav.kp.ru/online/news/824007

Vitali Razdobudko is accused of organizing the explosion at Domodedovo
airport.
http://www.stav.kp.ru/f/4/image/08/57/375708.jpg

His wife, Maria Horosheva has also been accused of terrorist sympathies.
http://www.stav.kp.ru/f/12/image/67/32/2233267.jpg

They are both on the run right now.
http://www.stav.kp.ru/daily/25629.5/795653/

Well, this is disputed. (The government's evidence of this guy's involvement with terrorism, I mean). People, particularly there, in North Caucasus, are used to Federal, and their own, local, governments and security officials accusing people of things they did not do. Probably why they don't want to expel his family yet.

Also, if those two are "terrorists", it may not even be connected to Chechnya, Islam, or their separatism.

Certainly back in the 90s, there were a lot of problems, with Cossacks. They, back then, got their hands on a lot of weapons by ambushing army and police vehicles transporting arms; as well as raiding security forces and military storage facilities. In 1998, 50 Kuban Cossacks, for example, led by horugvy (their "colonel") Semyon Prishchepa attacked a police warehouse outside the city of Tuapse. Killed one of the guards, neutralized two others, and ransacked the place. Made off with 200 Makarov handguns, 32 AKs, 2 PKM machine guns, 2 Mukha grenade launchers, many boxes of ammunition. That's just one case. There were dozens.

Our government thinks of Cossacks as their loyal soldiers, a tool, for keeping Chechens and others in check. Fact is, they are just as wild and dangerous as Chechens, more so: they look Slavic, can pass among us undetected. If they ever, God help us, wanted to wage a terrorist war against Russia, they would be very, very successful.

And they have their grievances too. In Rostov Oblast, their Don Cossacks, who are a majority of population by now, demand a autonomous Don Republic, with Ataman (Cossack commander/chieftain) in charge, instead of Governor. As the population of both Kuban and Terek Cossacks grows, they will start making similar calls too. Under the Tsars, they Cossacks governed their own territories, where their law reigned supreme, and non-Cossacks could not even own land. They remember that. Many of them, many more than Putin thinks, want that back...

Don Cossacks
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/135/31394428091471557721246.jpg
Flag says: "Don Cossacks demand Don Republic now!" Or something to that extent (it is in their Balachka dialect, which is closer to Ukrainian than Russian and hard for em to read).

Cossack boys play
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs531.snc3/30144_430336646557_721246557_5942090_4485130_n.jpg
The AKs are real, not toys

Their girls
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs618.snc3/32494_434589596557_721246557_6049751_3225482_n.jpg

Father camping with sons
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs081.snc4/35411_447531496557_721246557_6415871_6225766_n.jpg

Cossack in his home
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs576.snc3/31394_428075811557_721246557_5891196_6192217_n.jpg

They are just like Chechens. Only Christian...

Putin has reached out to them, met with their Ataman-in-chief, Vladimir Vodolacky, in Novocherkassk (Cossack capital)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs658.snc3/32527_1475280160634_1192591340_1327156_2321483_n.j pg

But I think he is making things worse. Look how he acts with Vodolacky. Instead of being the national leader that he is, he is standing there, listening respectively as the Ataman and his entourage gesture at him. No wonder they look so happy. They see that they are on top again, that Moscow is weak, as shown by its leader. Cossacks, as all Caucasians, respect strength, and despise weakness and cowardice. They live, all of them, by the same motto: "If you are not with us (as in, their equal), you are under us."

Simple as that...

[Donkey]

The larger issue of Cossacks in Russia aside (which I know very little about), I don't see a compelling reason to expel the father. Their must be limits of responsibility of the parents of an errant child.

[MeMyselfAndI]

The larger issue of Cossacks in Russia aside (which I know very little about), I don't see a compelling reason to expel the father. Their must be limits of responsibility of the parents of an errant child.

Well, that is where the North Caucasian concept of family honor comes in, which is practiced by Cossacks too. If a Chechen, Ingush, Ossetian, Kabardin, Dargin, or Cossack does something that is considered dishonorable, his whole clan answers for it, his parents, siblings. The act may be on one person, but the blame and shame is on everyone. That is why in many of those North Caucasian nations, blood feuds are such a big problem. Two Chechen teips (clans) may have a blood feud dating back 200 years, and the modern members of the teips would still attack and even murder each other over it today!

[Donkey]

Well, that is where the North Caucasian concept of family honor comes in, which is practiced by Cossacks too. If a Chechen, Ingush, Ossetian, Kabardin, Dargin, or Cossack does something that is considered dishonorable, his whole clan answers for it, his parents, siblings. The act may be on one person, but the blame and shame is on everyone. That is why in many of those North Caucasian nations, blood feuds are such a big problem. Two Chechen teips (clans) may have a blood feud dating back 200 years, and the modern members of the teips would still attack and even murder each other over it today!

I literally cannot comprehend that.

[MeMyselfAndI]

I literally cannot comprehend that.

Me neither. But, this is why I don't envy Putin... He has to govern a country where in some parts (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, big cities, essentially), there are skyscrapers, capitalism, and the 21st Century; while in others (most of North Caucasus, many parts of Siberia; and much of the Far North) people live in medieval, feudal societies...

I would not want his job, I really would not.

[Donkey]

Me neither. But, this is why I don't envy Putin... He has to govern a country where in some parts (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, big cities, essentially), there are skyscrapers, capitalism, and the 21st Century; while in others (most of North Caucasus, many parts of Siberia; and much of the Far North) people live in medieval, feudal societies...

I would not want his job, I really would not.

How long can Russia maintain it's territorial integrity? This is a much larger topic I'm sure, but it seems to me that Russia is determined to tear itself apart at the seams. The only things holding it together (apparently) are a strongman in Moscow, and the central government cozying up to warlords.

[MeMyselfAndI]

How long can Russia maintain it's territorial integrity? This is a much larger topic I'm sure, but it seems to me that Russia is determined to tear itself apart at the seams. The only things holding it together (apparently) are a strongman in Moscow, and the central government cozying up to warlords.

The one thing that is holding it together is the overwhelming force of its giant security apparatus. That and the government, as you said, paying off people like Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya, Yunus-bek Evkurov in Ingushetia, or Vladimir Vodolacky on Cossack territories to be loyal and to put down the separatists among themselves.

And, now, new policies being introduced in Kabardino-Balkaria, for example, to create "People's Self-Defense Brigades". Essentially, arm the population and let them create volunteer militias that will fight Islamists, separatists, and bandits. The problem with this, of course, is that the natives of Kabardino-Balkaria, especially the Kabardins, have long running land disputes and blood feuds with local Terek Cossack clans. Therefore, the government, to please the Cossacks, to show them they are not arming their opponents against them, have now to give them weapons as well. So, now, there will be well armed Kabardin and Cossack militias, supposedly fighting Islamist rebels together, but probably spending more time pointing those guns at each other...

It is a mess, that's for sure.

[MeMyselfAndI]

Vitali Razdobudko cleared of suspicion in Domodedovo explosion
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2011/01/28/razdobudko/

The family, as well as local Cossack leaders, are now demanding an apology from Moscow. Rightfully so, I must say. After Domodedovo, they fingered so many people. Magomed Evloev, a 20-year old Moscow University student, who happens to be from Ingushetia, was said to be the suicide bomber that carried out the attack. Except a day later, Evloev showed up at a police station near the university, alive and well but very upset, with an alibi for the day of the explosion, to clear his name... FSB looking like fools yet again. Surprise, surprise. :)

[Americano]

Vitali Razdobudko cleared of suspicion in Domodedovo explosion
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2011/01/28/razdobudko/

The family, as well as local Cossack leaders, are now demanding an apology from Moscow. Rightfully so, I must say. After Domodedovo, they fingered so many people. Magomed Evloev, a 20-year old Moscow University student, who happens to be from Ingushetia, was said to be the suicide bomber that carried out the attack. Except a day later, Evloev showed up at a police station near the university, alive and well but very upset, with an alibi for the day of the explosion, to clear his name... FSB looking like fools yet again. Surprise, surprise. :)

That is sadly hilarious.

[Michael]

How long can Russia maintain it's territorial integrity? This is a much larger topic I'm sure, but it seems to me that Russia is determined to tear itself apart at the seams. The only things holding it together (apparently) are a strongman in Moscow, and the central government cozying up to warlords.

People said that about Peter the Great's empire. And they said it about just about every Czar there after. Then they said that about the Soviet empire. Now they say it about Putin's empire.

I'm just a bit skeptical about the veracity of that critique. :shrug:

Russia's been around longer than the USA and has been through a whole lot more difficult times than this (remember Napoleon and/or Hitler's invasions?).

[Donkey]

People said that about Peter the Great's empire. And they said it about just about every Czar there after. Then they said that about the Soviet empire. Now they say it about Putin's empire.

I'm just a bit skeptical about the veracity of that critique. :shrug:

Russia's been around longer than the USA and has been through a whole lot more difficult times than this (remember Napoleon and/or Hitler's invasions?).

That is a fair point. And I am far from a Russia expert, just posing an observation. Though I would point out, it's not necessarily the difficult times (i.e. foreign invasion) that tear a country apart. It's the "good" times, no major foreign military threat, increased communication and freedom, groups starting to think they have "rights" and whatnot...

[Michael]

That is a fair point. And I am far from a Russia expert, just posing an observation. Though I would point out, it's not necessarily the difficult times (i.e. foreign invasion) that tear a country apart. It's the "good" times, no major foreign military threat, increased communication and freedom, groups starting to think they have "rights" and whatnot...

Yes, the 21st century does seem to supply some additional challenges to older style authoritarian regimes - as the events in Egypt this week clearly show.

But closer examination of the available data suggests that it is not 'authoritarianism' that is in danger, or what is protested against. Rather, as in Egypt, it is the failure of the authoritarians to 'share the wealth' with anyone except their cronies at the top. That seems to be the real kicker of revolutions.

As such, Putin's regime will not be judged according to whether it is authoritarian or not, but rather whether it delivers the goods to enough people - something the old Soviets failed to do. The fast growing size of the Russian middle class suggests that Putin is doing much better than the old Soviet regime with this critical metric.