‘Migrants will Save Russia as Long as They Aren’t Chinese,’ Belanovsky Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 21 – “In order to survive,” Sergey Belanovsky of the Russian Academy of Economics and State Service says, Russia “must become a melting pot” that will absorb immigrants into itself on the basis of a matrix of Russian culture, something that will be possible as long as the influx is not dominated by Chinese.

            In a Facebook post that has been republished by Novyye izvestiya, the sociologist says that he is not terribly interested in when Vladimir Putin will leave office or who will follow him but instead has been focused on two more critical questions: will Russia fall apart as Yugoslavia did and will its rulers be able to maintain power without a massive shedding of blood? (newizv.ru/comment/sergey-belanovskiy/20-07-2018/rossiyu-spasut-migranty-no-tochno-ne-kitayskie).

            “I don’t know how realistic it is but I want that Russia remain a whole county,” Belanovsky says. And that leads to the question: “What must be done so that this outcome won’t be hopeless?” First of all, Russians must focus on their demographic situation, one that is anything but encouraging.

            By mid-century there will remain only about 130 million Russian citizens, “of whom the ethnic Russians will be still fewer. But the end of the century, if the number remains at the current level, half of them will consist of migrants or their children.” That means that there won’t be enough Russians to master the territory they now claim.

            What kind of a Russia do we want, Belanovsky says Russians must ask themselves. If they want it to have something like its current borders, this means they must promote the Russian language but transform the state to hand over more power to the municipalities and to allow for the planned arrival and integration of migrants.

            In short, he says, “RUSSIA MUST BECOME A MELTING POT DOMINATED BY RUSSIAN CULTURE – or it won’t exist at all.”

            What will it mean if Russia ceases to exist? “Some consider that nothing terrible will. The war in the Balkans was horrific, but now peace rules there, and Montenegro has become one of the favorite resorts for Russians.” That could happen in a post-Russia future too, but Belanovsky says he prefers a future with a Russia in it.

            And in saying that, he ever ore often recalls the words of the Marquis de Custine that in Russia if not immediately will eventually be a revolution more horrible than was the French one.” Can that be avoided? “I don’t know, but one must try” if one wants Russia to survive, the sociologist says.

            And that means that Russia must become a melting pot that makes those who arrive into its own rather than remaining “a collection of ALIENS.”  The time for doing this was in fact yesterday, but it must be done now – and this requires forgetting about all the plans of Kudrin, Titov and Putin.”

            Russia stands before a choice: to be a melting pot or to become “a universal flood.” Which one do Russians want?  If it rejects the melting pot, then it will see the lands beyond the Urals gradually absorbed by China as Chinese labor moves in. And then it will have only one possible option, something that may not work.

 
            That would be an international consortium involving all the countries of the Pacific Rim, including the United States, which would manage the Chinese entry into this region but keep it within Russian borders. Whether that is possible, Belanovsky says, is far from clear.