In a speech in St. Petersburg on April 7, the chairman of Russia’s Constitutional Court argued that due to the economic crisis, Russia could descend into anarchy and then turn to totalitarianism. To prevent this, he said, the Kremlin has the right to employ authoritarian methods to save the country from disaster.

So, Russia should skip the anarchy and go straight to totalitarianism?

In related news, the prosecutor’s office in Vladivostok has censored a popular slogan of Communist anti-government protestors.

The slogan “Putler Kaput!” — a play on words combining Putin and Hitler — was found by the prosecutor’s office to be offensive to Putin and has been banned from use at public gatherings and meetings.

The prosecutor’s office is mulling over bans on other popular slogans, e.g., “Down with the Dictatorship of LilliPutians!”

Canada should push for the creation of an international park that would protect the area around the North Pole, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Monday.
[…]
“One of the proposals I’ve read about recently which I strongly support is that I think Canada could be part of an international agreement to make the North Pole, the whole area of the North Pole, an international public park for the world.”

Equally mind-boggling is Mr Ignatieff’s faith that a deal can be negotiated with the Russians, who have claimed sovereignty over the North Pole.

“We’ve got to get everybody around a table and say, ‘what do we want to do with this thing for the next 50 years?”‘

Russia wants to exploit the massive oil reserves in “this thing”.  To that end, Russia planted a flag on the floor of the sea beneath the North Pole in 2007 and claimed the Lomonosov and Mendeleyev ridges as far south as Ellesmere Island. Does Michael Ignatieff really think they’ll give that up for a “public park” if we ask ‘em nicely?

Graphic stolen from Dust My Broom.

Chastnyi Korrespondent has an interview with Sveta Rudneva, head of the “Family and Childhood” foundation of Russia. Like many Russians, she’s worried about the demographic decline of Russia. As she rightly points out, abortion is perhaps the biggest factor driving Russia into the demographic ashbin of history.

Asked if she’s seen a spike in abortions since the economic crisis began, Rudneva answered yes, but said that the downturn only exacerbated an existing problem. In her opinion, the high abortion rate is not the result of economics or a lack of benefits, but rather a cultural problem. The current stereotype is that women marry at 22, divorce six years later, and then are left to raise the child without alimony. In such a climate, women are understandably reluctant to have multiple children. Rudneva hopes to see special pro-family television programming which will help “form a correct worldview” in young people of reproductive age.

Perhaps most interesting, she says that “often it is not the woman herself who takes the initiative, but those around her. Often her relatives bring her in almost as if ‘in convoy.’” Domestic violence is even a factor, with blackmail and forced abortions taking place.

Regarding the overall demographics of Russia, she is pessimistic, but believes it is still possible to correct the decline.

h/t: Global Voices

Stores in the city of Chally, in the Republic of Tatarstan, are offering discount “anti-crisis bread” in a move that looks suspiciously like an effort to boost one candidate’s chances of reaching parliament.

A loaf of the specially labeled good costs 8 or 9 rubles, while other bread typically costs around 18 rubles a loaf.

If Mr Yunysov fails to win his seat at the 1 March election, watch for Tatarstan’s era of cheap bread to come to an abrupt end.

Grigory Pasko has the story at Robert Amsterdam’s blog.

I recently stumbled upon an interesting report about a group of Orthodox ascetics, living deep in the Russian hinterlands, who have adopted an iconographic image of Vladimir Putin in its religious rituals.

“In a previous lifetime, Putin was the apostle Paul, — reported the Mother. — But the president and I have a long-standing spiritual connection. In another life he was the prince Vladimir, and I the princess Olga.  In yet another hypostasis he was Solomon,  and I — the queen of Sheba,” – declared the head of the believers, who goes by the name of Mother Photinia (on her passport — Svetlana Frolova). [It should be noted that the mainstream Russian Orthodox Church does not believe in reincarnation and never has--Trans.]

In 1996, Ms Frovola was convicted of fraud and spent a year and a half behind bars.

Secular devotees also find St Vladimir Mr Putin enthralling. Last weekend, the youth movement United Russia staged pro-government rallies with half-baked speeches. Here are a few choice words from one Maria Sergeeva, complete with references to her holy trinity.

It’s no secret: in Russia today there are forces which are trying to blame Putin, Medvedev and United Russia for our temporary difficuties [sic]. These forces are like a dangerous virus – as soon as they sense a weakening of our immune system, they’ll attack.

But let’s be honest with ourselves. Take me, for instance, a student who pays full tuition. In 1998 I wouldn’t have known what to do. And now I don’t just believe. I know for certain that Putin, Medvedev and the United Russia party will protect me. They’ll give me the chance to take out a student loan at a rate of five percent, not 55 percent. They’ll give me a job. They won’t allow me to be fired illegally.

Ms Sergeeva maintains a blog (Russian) with many photos of herself (no translation needed).

Moscow police detained 25 people on Wednesday who had been planning to stage a protest to demand the removal of a mausoleum containing the embalmed body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin from Red Square.
[…]
The group had intended to dress up as mummies and demonstrate outside the mausoleum with a cardboard coffin. Media reports described the group as Orthodox monarchists who want Lenin buried as an ordinary person.

The mummies (young people wrapped from head to toe in white bandages) had hoped simply to join the solemn train of true believers trudging past Lenin’s body.

“There will be no crowd standing and chanting slogans… The mummies will join the procession of communists,” a spokesman for the organization said, promising that “the mummies will be quiet, just the way mummies should be.”
[…]
An opinion poll has shown that two thirds of Russians believe that the embalmed body of the architect of the 1917 Russian Revolution should be removed from its mausoleum on Red Square and buried.

Lenin’s bloody brainchild, the Soviet Union, died in 1991. Isn’t it time to bury the old totalitarian yet?

h/t: Eternal Remont

Now Russian car enthusiasts are organising and making broader political demands.  Some are calling for a general strike on 31 January if the tariffs are not rolled back.  A new group has emerged with a wide-ranging agenda.

Calling itself TIGR (from the first letters of the Russian words for Comradeship of Activist Citizens of Russia) and using the Siberian tiger on its shield to “symbolize the freedom-loving quality and beauty of that Far Eastern animal,” the group which appeared only last week has set up a web forum (http://the-right.org/forum/) and put forward 16 major demands.

Those demands include three closely related to the automobile owners’ interests – reduction of import duties, no ban on right-side driving wheels, and a reduction in price for gas – and four more economic ones – no increase in price for communal services, higher pay for workers, higher pensions, and an end to mass dismissals from work.

But nine demands – and all are listed at iskra-tigr.ru/ideologia/trebovaniya/ — are political: the dismissal of the government, freedom speech, an end to limitations on protests, a reversal on limitations on jury trials and the definition of treason, a defense of the Constitution, a reduction in the size of the bureaucracy, the adoption of serious anti-corruption measures, the restoration of the “against all” provision on ballots, and the election of governors.

No one seems to know very much about TIGR.  Could it be a legitimate expression of civil society?  A front for political subversives?  A government group giving authorities a pretext to crack down on dissent?

It does seem to have moved beyond a bunch of disgruntled consumers looking for inexpensive and reliable foreign cars.

In the last year, Russia has seen an 10-15 percent increase in street crime. This includes 1.7 million acts of minor hooliganism, 2 million incidences of public drinking, and about 4 million detentions for public drunkenness.

The lawmakers hope to stem the tide of these growing instances of public disorder by adding to the already existing 214,000 militiamen among the 363,000 law enforcement personnel. The law gives citizens three ways to help maintain social order. A person can assist or collaborate with police organs. He could also suggest proposals to the police on issues of maintaining social order. Or interested citizens could form their own “independent groups in their place of residence” which will give them the right to use physical force and armed defense if necessary.

Russia: The new Wild West.

h/t: Global Voices

“Sleep Lord Jesus, sleep,” Aleksei Dozenko sings, picking up the melody of a Christmas carol that had floated in the consciousness of Orthodox Russia long before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 drove the church underground.

The seven-and-a-half-year-old Dozenko is one of a new generation of children being brought up again in the time-honored traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

After 70 years in the wilderness, the rhythms and festivals of the Eastern Rite and Orthodox churches are reclaiming their place at the heart of the culture and life of Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere.

When the Soviet Union collapsed after decades of state-sponsored atheism, the Russian church appeared moribund. Now the faith is reviving as young people return to the beliefs and traditions of their parents and grandparents.

I join Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, the Hon Jason Kenney, in wishing a blessed and joyous Christmas to Eastern Rite and Orthodox Christians.

His offense: publishing an article about the effects of the country’s sharp economic downturn on Ulyanovsk, a Volga city some 900 kilometers east of Moscow.

Bragin’s article was posted on December 29 on the website of the Russian Popular Democratic Union, an opposition party led by former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose regional Ulyanovsk branch is headed by Bragin.

Yelena Dikun, a Kasyanov aide, told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that law enforcement agencies are accusing Bragin of tarnishing the region’s image.

Ms Dikun also says the party has “no intention” of acceding to the Interior Ministry’s demand that the article be taken down.  None of the facts in the article has been disputed, let alone refuted.  Mr Bragin is being punished for telling the truth about the effects of the recession.

Another sign that Russian authorities are intent on turning back to the back old days of authoritarian rule: In the final hours of 2008, President Dmitry Medvedev quietly signed a law eliminating jury trials for defendants charged with crimes against the state.

The law does away with jury trials for a variety of offenses, leaving people accused of treason, revolt, sabotage, espionage or terrorism at the mercy of three judges rather than a panel of peers. Critics say the law is dangerous because judges in Russia are vulnerable to manipulation and intimidation by the government.

Josh Calder, writing for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, lists many reasons why Russia’s future does not look as rosy as it has in the recent past.  Perhaps the most important factor is demography.

Finally, what is the real greatest threat to Russia? The country is losing nearly 1 million people a year as death rates exceed birthrates by a wide margin. No foreign power is likely to do Russia as much harm as its dire demographic decline.

Russians — especially men — are dying at younger and younger ages of heart disease and other complications of drinking and smoking, as well as of diseases like tuberculosis that have been virtually eradicated in the West. Economically strapped young people are having few or no children.

A nation with an aging and shrinking population cannot remain a powerful nation.  Russia’s population is presently half that of the United States; if projections prove correct, it could fall to one-third by 2030.

Irina Flige, director of Memorial’s office, says the police raid was not an accident or a case of mistaken identity. She believes that the work of her organisation in exposing and publicising Stalin’s crimes has become the target of a government effort to whitewash the past and justify in theoretical terms the continued existence of a strong authoritarian state. “It is a war over memory,” she says.

“The front line” between despotism and democracy in Russia, she adds, “runs through the past”.

St Petersburg police have still made no public statement on the Dec 4 raid. At noon that day, nine policemen, including two wearing black face masks, came to Memorial’s headquarters and stayed six hours combing through the office. Police said they were after information about an article that was published in an extremist newspaper, which Ms Flige says her organisation had nothing to do with. Police have not responded to requests to clarify their motives.

If a poll run by one of the country’s leading television stations is any indication, many ordinary Russians consider Stalin a hero. The old despot is running fourth in a vote for the greatest Russian ever, ahead of Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and even Lenin.

Voting closes tomorrow and the race is so tight that Stalin could pull it off.

UPDATE (29 Dec.): Stalin finished third.

Stalin, the brutal Soviet dictator responsible for the deaths of millions of his citizens, has been undergoing a makeover of sorts in recent years. Russian authorities have reshaped the Georgia-born dictator’s image into that of a misunderstood, demonized leader who did what he had to do to mold the Soviet Union into the superpower it became.

In Russian classrooms, history teachers are guided by a new, government-approved textbook, Alexander Filippov’s “Modern History of Russia: 1945-2006,” which hails Stalin as an efficient manager who had to resort to extreme measures to modernize the lumbering Soviet agrarian economy.

There were, writes Filippov, “rational reasons behind the use of violence in order to ensure maximum efficiency.”

Vladimir Putin did his bit to sugarcoat Stalin’s legacy by telling history teachers in 2007 that, while Russian history has its “problematic pages”, other nations also have blots in their histories.

“We have fewer of them than other countries, and they were less terrible than in other nations,” Putin continued. “We can’t allow anyone to impose a sense of guilt on us.”

In related news, a Russian spy agency official has scoffed at Ukraine’s call for recognition of the 1930s famine as genocide.

“The Holodomor is a Ukrainian invention,” General Vasily Khristoforov, head of registration and archives department at the Federal Security Service (FSB), told the Interfax news agency.

“Ukraine is trying to prove that the 1930s famine was an act of genocide the Stalinist leadership committed against Ukrainians.

The Stalin icon posted above appeared on Robert Amsterdam’s blog with this caption:

Picture taken on November 29, 2008 shows a Russian Orthodox icon that includes a depiction of Soviet-era leader Josef Stalin at a St. Olga’s Church outside St. Petersburg in Strelna. Father Yevstafy Zhakov, the benficiary of St. Olga’s Church, recently put up the icon showing Stalin standing before the Blessed Matrona of Moscow, a 20th-century saint. Father Yevstafy commented that, according to legend, Stalin would frequently talk to the woman and that she gave him advice on how to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II.

In the Russian Criminal Code, treason currently is defined as taking action aimed at damaging the country’s external security. Espionage is defined as revealing state secrets to foreign governments, their organizations, or their representatives.

The government submitted a bill to the State Duma on December 12 widening treason to include endangering Russia’s “constitutional order, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Likewise, the definition of espionage will be expanded to include revealing state secrets to foreign NGOs.

Not surprisingly, rights activists are duly distressed. The daily “Kommersant” quoted Lev Levinson of the Human Rights Institute as saying that that if the authorities are really going to interpret “any action directed against the constitutional regime” as treason, then its goal was apparently “to restore the Stalinist norm when anti-Soviet activity was a criminal offense.”

Why make this change now? The worldwide economic crisis is driving the Russian economy into recession, and public opinion polls show increasing dissatisfaction with the government. Perhaps Vladimir Putin fears that public unrest could erupt and wants legal authority to put down such threats to his continued rule.

JUST 18 months ago the European Union promised to save the world from climate change. A final plan to deliver on those promises must be finished soon. But it is in deep trouble.

The conclusions of the March 2007 summit proclaiming the EU’s “leading role” on climate change make for wistful reading today. They begin “Europe is currently enjoying an economic upswing,” and add that growth forecasts are “positive”. Back in that long-lost golden age, the EU’s leaders were in heroic mood. They offered binding promises known as the 20/20/20 pledges. By the year 2020, they would cut Europe’s carbon emissions by at least a fifth over 1990 levels; derive 20% of all energy from renewable sources; and make energy-efficiency savings of 20%.

The heroic mood is gone now. In March 2007 Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and chairman of the summit, was a green champion. Today she sounds like a lobbyist for German business, listing the industries that must be shielded from the full costs of her package. In truth, almost every country has found reasons why the climate-change promises may be impossible to meet in their current form.

Many European countries now see the expense of cutting carbon emissions as exorbitant. Moreover, the most convenient source of clean-burning natural gas is Russia and, after the recent war in Georgia, eastern Europeans are loath to increase dependence on Russian energy.

h/t: Greenie Watch