Posted on 08/03/2014 3:03:03 PM PDT by Ivan Mazepa
On Friday evening, the editors of Slon.ru, an independent internet news portal, received notice from the Russian state prosecutor’s office that it had 24 hours to remove an article about a Novosibirsk performance artist hosting a demonstration demanding Siberian self-determination and federalization. “We give up all our resources [to Moscow] and in return we get a raft of idiotic laws,” announced the performance mastermind, Artem Loskutov, a well-known performance artist and provocateur.
The article has been removed, but the site, part of the same holding as the beleaguered independent television channel Dozhd, still faces closure.
File this one under irony:
All these months, Russia has been supporting Russian separatists in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, trumpeting the principle of self-determination. "The right to self-determination is formalised as one of the most important goals of the UN Charter," said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov before the Russian parliament. "As to Crimea, as you know, its autonomy was restricted several times in the past against the will of the Crimeans. After the armed coup by persons, who seized power in Kiev, actions were undertaken, which even more aggravated the possibilities of the Crimeans to exercise their right to self-determination within the Ukrainian state."
But, in the Kremlin's understanding, self-determination begins where Russia ends. It’s a sensitive subject in Russia: The Russian Federation is a country cobbled together out of many different nationalities and regions, and it fought two wars with the Chechens to keep them from self-determining their way out of the Federation. Siberian separatism has always simmered under the surface, with the locals resentful of paying for the lavish life of a capital whose wealth depends on Siberia’s subterranean riches.
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
Erikinski Holderkov.
Thank you for our latest dose of red herring on a Russia thread.
Russian concept of self-determination ... shut up or die!
Russian concept of self-determination ... shut up or die!
In US, states have power, in Russia, they have nothing. Moscow decides what happens in the rest of the empire. This was the case for centuries, czars or communists.
The Siberian federalization/separatist video claims 80% of Siberian wealth leaves the territory to feed Moscow. I don’t have the time to validate that claim, but whatever the number is, I expect it to be high and incomparable to the US and Washington.
~~In US, states have power, in Russia, they have nothing. Moscow decides what happens in the rest of the empire. This was the case for centuries, czars or communists.~~
You have a valid point, sure. What about Ukraine? Are regions that much independent or not?
“Siberian self-determination”
Oh boy, that will be fun :)))
On my very scientific scale of 1 to 10, where North Korea is 1, Russia is a 3, Ukraine a 4.
In Ukraine, mayors are slightly stronger, and locally elected bodies can and sometimes do give a non-confidence vote to the central government’s appointee (governor)
From the very beginning of protests, one of the demands was to give more powers to the locally elected government, which meant letting the governors be elected locally, so it’s not an appointee from the capital. Lack of such legislature in Rada after 5 months now, is one of the criticisms of Yatseniuk, Poroshenko and Co. As for myself, I can give them leeway FOR NOW, because 1)they don’t have full control of this Rada with the Region/Communists in there, and 2)the immediate concern is the war.
(Yeah-yeah, the pro-Russian cynics will say that nothing will change, to which I’ll say that there’s a chance that things will change, but in Russia it’s almost a guarantee that it will stay the same. Also, with the trauma of EuroMaidan and the war in the East, there’s greater scrutiny and demand for the politicians to do what they’re there to do. If they fail, there will be a Third, Fourth Maidan, and looking at the first two, it appears they’re getting bloodier and bloodier)
There are very few news orgs not under the control of the Kremlin these days
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