I've translated only the lede (not enough hours in the day...), but the whole article is worth reading:
Enough of RogozinIn addition to the Rodina resources at my last post about Rogozin's political fortunes, here's a detailed (if a bit dated) political bio from RFE/RL.
The main "Great Russian" has been pushed out of big-time politics
When Dmitrii Rogozin was squeezed out of "Rodina" in the spring of 2006, he persevered and promised to continue "his fight." When he participated in the "Russian March - 2006" and resurrected the Congress of Russian Communities [KRO, or Конгресс русских общин], he was full of optimism. When he created the nationalist party "Great Russia" with his long-time colleague Andrei Saveliev, everyone finally believed in the seriousness of his intentions. But the Firm Hand of Stability [caps in original] has caught up with him, and Rogozin can safely be crossed off the list of up-and-coming politicians. At least for now.
5 comments:
Garry Kasparov mentioned Rogozin in his recent interview to Radio Liberty (in Russian):
"Rogozin, Glazyev... In spite of the political views, everything that doesn't fit the average level, that is not fully controlled by Kremlin, must be exterminated...
We think that these people, if they join together, might become a strong political force. Because if we look at this list: Illarionov, Ryzhkov, Rogozin, Glazyev, Gerashchenko, and we can continue -- Tyulkin, Anpilov, Limonov, Kasparov -- the list will be endless, and it will grow after December 2. Because SPS and Yabloko and all organizations like "The Patriots of Russia", they will be thrown away."
Illarionov, Ryzhkov, Rogozin, Glazyev, Gerashchenko, and we can continue -- Tyulkin, Anpilov, Limonov, Kasparov
It's like a who's who of political losers and nutjubs!
Chris, if all those people are nutjobs, who are the sane politicians in Russia? Just the folks in Putin's okruzhenie?
I guess I'm trying to figure out what your criteria are for determining whether someone's a political loser and a nutjob. Rogozin and Glazyev - you can't say they were unpopular with the voters; same is true of Ryzhkov (at least the voters of his region liked him, when they had the chance to vote for him); Illarionov was one of Putin's main economic advisors and was involved in some of the more successful policies during Putin's first term; Gerashchenko, whatever you think of his later involvement with Yukos and Other Russia (and Rodina, too, apparently), was in charge of the CBR for a long time, including the early part of Putin's term. So on that list you have people who have been politically successful and people who have been professionally successful in policy (as opposed to political) jobs.
Putin's team may look good in comparison, but that's only because they've had the good fortune of being at the helm during the oil windfall years.
"Chris, if all those people are nutjobs, who are the sane politicians in Russia? Just the folks in Putin's okruzhenie?"
Nope. Yavlinsky is one. Zyuganov is another. People with actual supporters.
Actually I rather like Glazev. Not only is he a lefty like me, he looks like Matthew Broderick, always a plus. In fact I originally supported Rodina because of his presence. Boy was I deluded then.
But then, we have
Garry "Putin is like Hitler" Kasparov, the Bobby Fisher of Russia
The unabashed Stalinist Anpilov (though to be fair a woman I used to date knows him, or used to, and says that he is personally an extremely warm person)
Eduard "Albanians should be born with no fingers" Limonov -- need I say more (the aforesaid woman also knows him, or used to, as her ex-husband was a radical nationalist poet who moved in those circles, and she says he's a complete ass)
Rogozin -- parlez-vous francais?
Geraschenko -- "the worst Central Banker in history," though that rep may not be deserved
And Misha 2%
What a winning bunch.
If I may dive into UN trash culture, it sort of reminds me of the Sinister Six. "To stop Spider-Man, we must combine all our powers, all of us -- Dr. Octopus! Rhino! The Chameleon! Mysterio! The Shocker! The Scorpion! Together, combining our powers, we will be unstoppable! And we shall deny that the Kingpin, aka Berezovsky, has anything to do with us!"
And I'll form the head! To make another trash culture reference.
It's really hilarious.
Not so long ago, Stephen Shenfield had a piece in JRL, which was of the opinion that Rogozin isn't a bigoted extremist. James Jatras, who periodically contributes to Russia Profile's Panel of Experts agrees. At issue are the biases of some of those non-Russians in the West, who don't sympathize with Russocentric concerns. Here's an MT piece by Rogozin:
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/10/10/006.html
Monday, October 10, 2005. Issue 3270. Page 8.
The Danger of Porous Borders
By Dmitry Rogozin
One of the benefits of being Russian is that there is never a lack of constructive advice on sensitive social matters like immigration and ethnic and religious tolerance -- not only from Russia's own liberals, but from friendly foreign countries and international nongovernmental organizations that are glad to instruct Russia on its duty to move toward the democratic standards of an open society. Russia need only adopt advanced Western models, they insist, and all will be well.
Then again, maybe not. Recently, the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia made the following statement in a report on anti-Jewish violence in EU countries: "France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.K. witnessed rather serious anti-Semitic incidents such as numerous physical attacks and insults directed against Jews and the vandalism of Jewish institutions -- synagogues, shops, cemeteries." Evidently, even some of Europe's longest-established democracies are not immune to such ugly behavior.
It turns out that few of the responsible parties are indigenous French, Belgians, Dutch and Britons. The vast majority of the perpetrators are first- or second-generation immigrants from Muslim countries, many of them illegally taking advantage of lax border controls. Rejecting assimilation of the languages, traditions and values of the countries that have welcomed them -- and despite the fact that they are often supported at public expense -- some of them find the allure of crime, even jihad, irresistible.
Although Jews often are singled out, they are not the only victims. France has become home to Muslim ghettos where polygamy is openly practiced and sharia law enforced in defiance of secular law. Muslim girls who reject arranged marriages or the wearing of headscarves are denounced as whores and risk gang rape. Normal citizens and even police fear entering crime-ridden outer suburbs of Paris and Marseille, where native French are mocked as "Gaulois" -- aliens in their own land.
Among the suspects in the July 7 bombings in the city some call Londonistan are a Somali, the son of an affluent Pakistani fish-and-chip shop owner and a Jamaican-born convert to Islam. They all attended the Finsbury Park mosque, inspired by the radical imam Abu Hamza al-Masri. Courtesy of hundreds of thousands of pounds paid to him by British taxpayers as an asylum-seeker, for years he exhorted his disciples to jihad -- and, unsurprisingly, some heeded the call.
The filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was an outspoken critic of the treatment of women in some Muslim households, was murdered on the street by a Dutch-born Moroccan, and his killer left a note threatening more attacks in the name of radical Islam. As Michael Leaden of the American Enterprise Institute has noted, van Gogh's murder "is a textbook case of what happens when a tolerant but confused society takes political correctness to its illogical extreme."
Along with terror, immigrants also have imported a growing problem of organized crime. In many European cities, the Albanian mafia is involved in trafficking sex slaves from Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus as well as in distributing heroin, cultivated in the poppy fields of Afghanistan and smuggled through former Soviet states.
If what is happening in European democracies is indeed a textbook case of tolerance taken to a dangerous extreme, this is one Western paradigm that Russia must not imitate. The current government's laxity in enforcing Russia's laws and its failure to implement a national strategy of border protection amount to dereliction of duty.
Facilitated by a visa-free regime with most of the CIS and by sloppy and corrupt administration, thousands of illegal immigrants -- and not only from the CIS but also from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Vietnam -- enter Russia daily, unobstructed and unobserved. Russia is now home to an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants, about 2 million of whom live in the city of Moscow and the Moscow region, most of them illiterate and low-skilled. We can only guess how many enter with criminal or terrorist intent.
In Russia, as in Europe, certain illegal immigrants constitute ideal recruits for jihad terrorism, and terror and crime are often linked. For example, just this month, members of the Hizb-ut Tahrir terrorist organization were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the distribution of heroin in the Moscow area. Without legal status, undocumented immigrants in Russia are often forced by criminal organizations into drug trafficking and prostitution. These are gross violations of human rights that the Russian authorities and NGOs prefer to ignore. Moreover, even when working legally -- in horrible conditions and for pay that is low even by Russian standards -- they displace Russians in the job market, drive down wages and place a burden on the infrastructure.
There is an urgent need for laws and policies to restore Russia's control over its borders so it can put its house in order. There should be a strict visa regime with neighboring CIS states to screen out criminals and potential terrorists. Foreign labor should be admitted only as long as it benefits Russia's national economy and international competitiveness, with priority given to Russian-speaking nationals of the former Soviet Union with high educational and vocational levels who are willing to become permanent residents and, eventually, loyal Russian citizens. Russia needs skilled foreign labor.
Cultural integration and Russian language proficiency should be made requirements for receiving government resettlement aid. This does not mean that there should be discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity or religion: Xenophobia and chauvinism are unacceptable and have no place in Russia. A strict immigration problem is no excuse for the violent racist fringe, who have proudly adopted Nazi regalia and slogans. No more tolerable in Moscow than anywhere else, the ideology they represent was delivered a fatal blow 60 years ago by the immortal feats of Russian arms.
"This country has lost control of its borders. And no country can sustain that kind of position." Those words of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan could easily be used to describe Russia today. There is no possible justification for violence and hatred that could tear apart Russian society, whether it comes from the neo-Nazi fringe or from the advocates of ersatz tolerance, who would open our doors to the very extremism they claim to oppose.
Dmitry Rogozin is chairman of the Rodina party and a State Duma deputy. He contributed this piece to The Moscow Times.
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