Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 14 – Perhaps more
than any other contemporary world leader, Vladimir Putin believes time works in
his favor whether it be the West’s response to his acts of aggression or protests
by Russians against his policies. If he waits long enough, he is convinced, the
West will fold and the media will cease to cover the protesters rendering them
impotent.
Unfortunately, all too often, the
Kremlin leader is correct in his assumption.
Five years after Putin invaded and illegally annexed part of Ukraine,
ever more Western leaders are not only calling for a return to “business as
usual” but actually taking steps that will allow Putin to keep his ill-gotten
gains with little ultimate penalty.
And now, after a much shorter periods,
the more independent news outlets in Russia are joining the state-controlled
ones in not reporting about key protests be it Albert Razin’s self-immolation
to call attention to Moscow’s repression of non-Russians or demonstrators against
Putin’s plans for garbage dumps in the Far North.
Without coverage, it is hard for Russian
protesters to continue their actions; and unlike during the Cold War, they often
cannot count on the Western media to tell their stories and broadcast them back
to the population. That undermines their ability to have an impact and in turn
reduces the willingness of many to take part in such demonstrations.
Earlier this summer, many media
outlets actively covered the anti-dump protesters at Shiyes and other sites in
the Russian North. But now such coverage has become far more sparse, and many
Russians even are asking “what is Shiyes?” exactly the response the Kremlin
hopes for (cf. windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/08/once-again-time-is-working-against.html).
The paucity of recent coverage of these
protests makes articles like Irina Sinyukhova’s 3500-word first person account of
what is happening in Shiyes now especially important because they show that the
protesters are increasingly committed to holding on and that even outlets like Regnum
are now again talking about that (regnum.ru/news/society/2719190.html).
Sinyukhova says that “Shiyes now is
a really dangerous place, the site of actions between money and conscience. On one
side of the barricades are private guard forces and the police who have clubs
and the right of the strong, [and] on the other are civic activists. Conscience
has no weapons; it has only the people.”
But at present, neither side has won
a final victory: those who want to create a dump for Moscow trash in the far
north have been forced to engage in various subterfuges in order to continue,
while those who are opposed have to face occasional beatings, massive fines –
more than two million rubles (30,000 US dollars), and the difficulties of
living in an encampment.
The 500 plus residents of the encampment
came first from the immediate neighborhood, the journalist says; but now come
from all over and are quickly acquiring a new identity as a result. They call themselves Shiyesnutyye –
the people of Shiyes – they fly their own flags, and they are increasingly
creating their urban institutioons to support their efforts.
The residents take care of one another,
they have the support of people in Arkhangelsk and elsewhere, and they have
imposed a dry law. Tomorrow, they are scheduled to declare unilaterally the formation
of “a commune,” an act that will certainly lead many to recall the Northern
Commune in Karelia in the wake of the 1917 revolution.
Demonstrators in Moscow may simply
go home after the speeches end, but those in Shiyes are different. When
Sinyukhova asked one of the Shiyes people what they would do if they suddenly
saw a trash dump outside their window, the latter responded: “We would die, but
it is better to do so now under the wheels of excavators” than from the trash
then.
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