Young Russians in Magadan Outraged Siloviki Children Being Given Preferences in University Admissions

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 20 – After the Navalny protests, officials in Magadan were directed to do everything they can to explain to young Russians why they should not take part in protests with the risks to their well-being and careers put in jeopardy if they do. But this effort, Magadan Speaks says, has backfired.

            The reason, the independent portal says, is that young people in that Far Eastern Russian city are outraged by Moscow’s decision to give preferences the children of siloviki in admission to higher educational institutions (govoritmagadan.ru/bitva-za-molodezh-v-ataku-poshla-vlast-i-siloviki/ and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/02/moscow-to-give-children-of-interior.html).

            “Are children of teachers or doctors second-class people,” young Russians and not just the young ask, Magadan Speaks continues. And young people in that city have other questions as well: why has no one been punished for the corruption Aleksey Navalny has exposed? And why has Navalny himself been put in prison simply for doing so.

            Of course, people say, the latest Navalny film about the palace that he says belongs to Putin may be “mistaken,” the portal acknowledges. “But ALL OTHER PERSONS of his investigations are in fact saints?” None of them has been charged or convicted of their roles. Indeed, no one favored by the powers has.

            Moreover, the portal says, young people in Magadan are asking why the powers that be have never given the ‘extra-systemic’ opposition the chance to become “systemic,” something that Moscow should have allowed because the extra-systemic parties represent ‘a significant portion of the people.”

            Magadan Speaks observes that all this shows that Russians distrust the powers that be and their distrust has assumed “enormous proportions.” Recovering it by issuing threats, it says, will be “impossible.” The powers need to offer “convincing arguments in a dialogue” with not just the young but with the entire population.

            But at present, “there is neither dialogue nor arguments except for fines and the threat of detention.” No one is going to win that way, it concludes.