‘Terror Can’t Be Applied Selectively,’ El Murid Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 26 – Vladimir Putin’s reiteration of his opposition to mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s call for setting up special areas in restaurants and other public places reflect the difficulties Russian officials are having in dealing with the fact that  “terror can’t be applied selectively” but rather inevitably spreads, El Murid.

            Aleksey Nesmiyan, who blogs under that screen name, argues that the fact Putin felt compelled to “slow down over-zealous officials” in this way, of course, means that many officials are thinking about doing precisely what he says he does not want to have happen (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=60AF22332E60D).

            This is all of a piece of “the transition of the Russian regime to the fascist terrorist model of administration,” something that is happening not because of “any special malice” on the part of the regime or its officials but simply because “the regime already is not in a position to secure regular administration by other means not based on the use of force.”

            In that respect, Nesmiyan says, “it is a complete bankrupt.”

            When officials look around themselves, they reach the obvious conclusion that if the only way a task can be solved is through the use of force that they should be allowed to use it too. “Why should the OMON be able to apply force to beat protesters but force must not be used to secure the required percentage of vaccinations?” For them, there is no reason why not.

            “Terror,” he continues, “cannot be applied selectively.” When officials conclude that the use of force is acceptable and works in an increasing number of sectors, they will use it in ever more until “the situation arises when force swallows up everything and a collapse ensues.”

            Putin quite clearly is trying to slow down the very approach he himself has sponsored, but he is fighting a losing battle because “this movement always is only in one direction,” and “the collapse of administration in the country is an absolutely objective thing,” something appeals by the leader cannot by themselves change.

            Tragically, what Mayor Sobyanin has called for, while it looks at least “minimally sane,” in fact reflects precisely the pattern that Putin in his latest remarks appears planning to try to rein in. Isolating those who have been vaccinated from those who have not in restaurants may seem to be just fine, Nesmiyan says.

            But this in turn will lead to the introduction of “special zones with towers and barbed wire,” for the good of the citizens “of course,” but something that will push Russia further alone the road to apartheid and fascism.