Staunton, October 3 – Despite the
current nostalgia for Soviet times and the difficulties of the 1990s, Russians
still view travelling abroad and having access to a free flow of information as
inalienable rights, the editors of “Nezavisimaya gazeta” say. But at the same
time, they are “prepared for the limitation” of these rights by the government.
Citing recent surveys by the Levada
Center, the editors of the Moscow paper say in a lead article today that these
are rights that a majority of Russians view as “inalienable” but at the same
time, a large share of them expect that the government will restrict these
rights and say they will not protest if that happens (ng.ru/editorial/2014-10-03/2_red.html).
One reason for this, the editors
say, is that in some cases, such as the right to travel abroad, relatively few
actually are able to exercise that right. Only eight or nine percent of
Russians travel abroad each year, and fewer than one in three – 29 percent –
even have passports that they would need to do so.
But another reason is that polls
show it is “easy” for the government to convince Russians that limitations are “justified
and necessary.” A recent Levada Center
survey found, for example, that Russians were quite prepared to accept the need
for an embargo on foreign products but at the same time 62 percent said they “aren’t
prepared for an essential worsening of the position of their families because
of sanctions.”
Such results are “paradoxical” only
at a superficial level, the paper continues. In fact, they show that the
authorities with skillful propaganda can obtain “serious support” for the
restriction on freedoms -- even if they and their president say that these
freedoms are “inalienable” rights.
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