MeMyselfAndI
Sep 20th 2011, 03:51 PM
I've been thinking and I realised that the biggest threat to Russia (and Europe, but I will get to that later) is not, in fact, religious extremism, but ethnic nationalism.
And I talk not just of ethnic Russian nationalism
http://img15.nnm.ru/b/4/d/a/6/5b8ad2a8eaca1e381380692e34d.jpg
though that certainly too is an issue.
But, talking to my wife, she has just returned from her home Tatarstan.
The current Tatar President Rustam Minnikhanov
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4632/rustam3k.jpg
has been very effective in completely putting down any wahabism or any Islamic extremist movements in his Republic.
The problem is, to counterweight the appeal of extreme Islamism to youth, Minnikhanov has been reaching out to and strenghening the secular Tatar nationalist groups
http://streetmob.org/cache/multithumb_images/b.800.600.0.0...files.newspics.KAZAN.jpg
http://mariuver.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/den_pamjati.jpg
Minnikhanov has made moves to gain popularity with the nationalists, for example mandatory Tatar language classes in all schools in the Republic
http://imcaleks.ucoz.ru/_nw/4/98247021.jpg
At the same time, there were rumours that funding for Russian language classes would be cut, which sparked protests by parents (ethnic Russians, but quite a few Tatars also)
http://ruskline.ru/images/2011/20559.jpghttp://ruskline.ru/images/2011/20560.jpg
Eventually, Minnikhanov kind of relented and said that Russian classes will not suffer any cutbacks, while for Russian children studying the Tatar language would be a "good way to strenghen the eternal brotherhood between our two peoples".
But now, he is trying to become a regional leader. He has demanded incredible funding from Moscow:
"Federal government to spend 100 BILLION rubles on development of Kazan"
http://susanin.udm.ru/news/2011/09/15/368307
I read in another article how Minnikhanov is trying to spread his influence over much of the Volga basin, by way of his Tatar nationalist cronies joing forces with counterparts in Bashkortostan and Chuvashia. The three peoples are related, Bashkirs are direct descendants of Tatars and Chuvash are Tatars and Bashkirs who intermixed with Finno-Ughoric tribes and converted to Orthodox Christianity.
Minnikhanov is seeking to make his Republic a regional leader.
And he is not the only one like this. We already know all about the North Caucasus, the situation there has already deteriorated.
But, what of, say, Yakutia?
Medvedev had just recently appointed a new President there, Egor Borisov
http://archive.russia-today.ru/2007/yakutia/pict/y_brea12.jpgThis is important: Borisov is the first ethnic indigenous Yakut in ages to actually become leader of Yakutia. Two years ago, the different native tribes have once again become a demographic majority in the Republic. Moscow could no longer have a Slav as President there, it would be apartheid. So, previous President, Vyacheslav Shtyrov
http://www.sy-corp.ru/photo/gal/73.jpg
was removed, and a one of native origin (but a loyal native :D) put in his place, so as to avoid tensions.
Borisov was Prime Minister, before he was appointed President. He is a Yakut patriot. Comes from a poor family, his father was a farmer, and then a mechanic on one of those diamond mines I told you about. Mother was a kindergarten nanny. He grew up in Churapinsky district. Very poor, very native (97% of the population are indegenous Sakha people, natives of Yakutia; Russians and other Slavs are just 1.5%). Grew up the hard way. From dirt to the top. He speaks Saxa tila, the Yakut language, perfectly, as does his wife and their two daughters. His favorite past time is listening to Yakut folk music. He genuinely loves his people.
Rumours are, he may just stand up to the diamond companies, demand more of their profits stay in the Republic, maybe even try to give Sakha tribes legal rights of the land on which the mines are located, so they can collect some sort of revenue from the mine firms. If that happens, there will be a fight. The mining companies will not lie down under that without a epic battle.
Yakut nationalism has shown itself this past May, when, in Yakutsk, the capital, 25-year old Vanik Nersesyan, ethnic Armenian, sexually assaulted a 20-year old ethnic Sakha girl, Kristina Lebedeva. He hurt her pretty badly. Later, mobs of youth (indegenous and Slavic, surprisingly), surrounded the dormitory where Armenian migrant construction workers, including Nersesyan, lived, and hurled Molotov cocktails through doors and windows. As the Armenians ran outside, the crowd attacked and beat them with baseball bats, stones, bottles, anything they picked up from the ground, or just their bare fists and legs
http://blog.kp.ru/users/sem_9011/post167658706/
What we now have, in Russia, is Russian ethnic nationalism increasingly clashing with that of various minorities. Though, as you see in the Yakutsk case, sometimes they unite, when it is convenient :)
And that brings me to Europe, where I am afraid it is not better, and, in some ways, worse.
In Europe, you have a much more complex situation. You have 'white Europeans', then Gypsies/Roma, Muslim immigrants, Jews.
In East Europe, there is more and more violence between Roma and local ethnic groups
Anti-Roma Protests Turn Violent in the Czech Republic (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,786495,00.html)
And you have groups like the English Defense League who add fuel into the fire...
God... What a world we live in, and what will it look like tommorrow?
And I talk not just of ethnic Russian nationalism
http://img15.nnm.ru/b/4/d/a/6/5b8ad2a8eaca1e381380692e34d.jpg
though that certainly too is an issue.
But, talking to my wife, she has just returned from her home Tatarstan.
The current Tatar President Rustam Minnikhanov
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4632/rustam3k.jpg
has been very effective in completely putting down any wahabism or any Islamic extremist movements in his Republic.
The problem is, to counterweight the appeal of extreme Islamism to youth, Minnikhanov has been reaching out to and strenghening the secular Tatar nationalist groups
http://streetmob.org/cache/multithumb_images/b.800.600.0.0...files.newspics.KAZAN.jpg
http://mariuver.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/den_pamjati.jpg
Minnikhanov has made moves to gain popularity with the nationalists, for example mandatory Tatar language classes in all schools in the Republic
http://imcaleks.ucoz.ru/_nw/4/98247021.jpg
At the same time, there were rumours that funding for Russian language classes would be cut, which sparked protests by parents (ethnic Russians, but quite a few Tatars also)
http://ruskline.ru/images/2011/20559.jpghttp://ruskline.ru/images/2011/20560.jpg
Eventually, Minnikhanov kind of relented and said that Russian classes will not suffer any cutbacks, while for Russian children studying the Tatar language would be a "good way to strenghen the eternal brotherhood between our two peoples".
But now, he is trying to become a regional leader. He has demanded incredible funding from Moscow:
"Federal government to spend 100 BILLION rubles on development of Kazan"
http://susanin.udm.ru/news/2011/09/15/368307
I read in another article how Minnikhanov is trying to spread his influence over much of the Volga basin, by way of his Tatar nationalist cronies joing forces with counterparts in Bashkortostan and Chuvashia. The three peoples are related, Bashkirs are direct descendants of Tatars and Chuvash are Tatars and Bashkirs who intermixed with Finno-Ughoric tribes and converted to Orthodox Christianity.
Minnikhanov is seeking to make his Republic a regional leader.
And he is not the only one like this. We already know all about the North Caucasus, the situation there has already deteriorated.
But, what of, say, Yakutia?
Medvedev had just recently appointed a new President there, Egor Borisov
http://archive.russia-today.ru/2007/yakutia/pict/y_brea12.jpgThis is important: Borisov is the first ethnic indigenous Yakut in ages to actually become leader of Yakutia. Two years ago, the different native tribes have once again become a demographic majority in the Republic. Moscow could no longer have a Slav as President there, it would be apartheid. So, previous President, Vyacheslav Shtyrov
http://www.sy-corp.ru/photo/gal/73.jpg
was removed, and a one of native origin (but a loyal native :D) put in his place, so as to avoid tensions.
Borisov was Prime Minister, before he was appointed President. He is a Yakut patriot. Comes from a poor family, his father was a farmer, and then a mechanic on one of those diamond mines I told you about. Mother was a kindergarten nanny. He grew up in Churapinsky district. Very poor, very native (97% of the population are indegenous Sakha people, natives of Yakutia; Russians and other Slavs are just 1.5%). Grew up the hard way. From dirt to the top. He speaks Saxa tila, the Yakut language, perfectly, as does his wife and their two daughters. His favorite past time is listening to Yakut folk music. He genuinely loves his people.
Rumours are, he may just stand up to the diamond companies, demand more of their profits stay in the Republic, maybe even try to give Sakha tribes legal rights of the land on which the mines are located, so they can collect some sort of revenue from the mine firms. If that happens, there will be a fight. The mining companies will not lie down under that without a epic battle.
Yakut nationalism has shown itself this past May, when, in Yakutsk, the capital, 25-year old Vanik Nersesyan, ethnic Armenian, sexually assaulted a 20-year old ethnic Sakha girl, Kristina Lebedeva. He hurt her pretty badly. Later, mobs of youth (indegenous and Slavic, surprisingly), surrounded the dormitory where Armenian migrant construction workers, including Nersesyan, lived, and hurled Molotov cocktails through doors and windows. As the Armenians ran outside, the crowd attacked and beat them with baseball bats, stones, bottles, anything they picked up from the ground, or just their bare fists and legs
http://blog.kp.ru/users/sem_9011/post167658706/
What we now have, in Russia, is Russian ethnic nationalism increasingly clashing with that of various minorities. Though, as you see in the Yakutsk case, sometimes they unite, when it is convenient :)
And that brings me to Europe, where I am afraid it is not better, and, in some ways, worse.
In Europe, you have a much more complex situation. You have 'white Europeans', then Gypsies/Roma, Muslim immigrants, Jews.
In East Europe, there is more and more violence between Roma and local ethnic groups
Anti-Roma Protests Turn Violent in the Czech Republic (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,786495,00.html)
And you have groups like the English Defense League who add fuel into the fire...
God... What a world we live in, and what will it look like tommorrow?