Won't go into too much detail about this article but it's very good. Tabarovsky takes a look inside Russia, and the picture is grim. On the one hand the Western powers are imposing painful sanctions, fiscal and otherwise. But Putin himself is cracking down on them as well, because it's war, baby. It's the very definition of getting it from both ends.
One passage:
Barbashin challenged the West’s apparent desire to freeze the Russians out completely. “Right now it looks like this: ‘We’ll separate ourselves from you, you depose Putin, and we’ll talk to you then.’ But you can’t just introduce a thousand sanctions, step aside, and wait for the problem to solve itself.”
No one I talked to among new Russian political emigrants is complaining about their situation. They are the first to say that their troubles can’t compare to the catastrophe in Ukraine. They insist that whatever help is available must go to Ukrainian refugees and the people inside Ukraine first. Yet even during World War II, the world knew the difference between Marlene Dietrich, Albert Einstein, and Hannah Arendt, and the Nazi regime—just as in Soviet times, the West understood the difference between Andrei Sakharov and Natan Sharansky and the KGB.
Question: Do our leaders wantus to see our fellow human beings as individuals? Or is our potential do just that considered part of the problem?
2 comments:
I agree with you that it's a very dense article and she's right about war causing suffering, and not just the Ukrainians either; the chances are we'll all suffer because of this one. It's a sad fact that governments lie to their people. Right now, other than in Ms. Tabarovsky's article, it's impossible to find any information about Russians emigrating because of the situation in the Ukraine.
The author is very much a product of the US and Israeli systems, and although I don't blame her for her opinions, I feel the overall picture Ms. Tabarovsky paints of doom for the Russian people is an exaggerated one. The fact is that the US, the country that runs NATO, has been encroaching on the territory of Russia since the early 90's - here's an article from the German Deutschweil that gives the essentials (note the map).
It's also true the Russians didn't throw all those Western companies out, that was done by the West, often by threats as well as shame campaigns on social media.
As to your questions, 'Do our leaders want us to see our fellow human beings as individuals? Or is our potential do just that considered part of the problem?' - the answers would appear to be 'no' and 'yes'. It's been very creepy to read stories about people with Russian names and backgrounds being harassed, Russian restaurants boycotted and vandalized, Russian authors being cancelled, Russian artists, musicians, and athletes being banned. Once upon a time people knew the difference between Stalin and Solzhenitsyn.
The phrase "impossible to find any information" seems to pop up a lot these days, especially if you prefer reliable and unbiased information, as some of us still do. It's hard to find media sources on some of this stuff that haven't been compromised or censored. A hot topic like the current war in Eastern Europe is especially prone to that.
One thing that might be said about NATO and Russia is that Russia used to have its own parallel alliance, the Warsaw Pact. It was dissolved at the putative end of the Cold War. NATO, of course, has stayed united and in some ways become more ambitious. As you said, the US is the prime mover behind this. If Putin believes that Yeltsin ceded too much without any guarantees I'm sure he's not the only one.
The harassment and cancellations of Russians abroad and/or people of Russian descent has been something to see. People lose their jobs and their standing, a few principled liberals object that this is not the way to do it, but the process doesn't stop. Consider that the US still had German movie stars during the war against Hitler.
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