Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 1 – Kalmyk opponents
of the appointment of an ethnic Russian who had worked in the DNR as Elista mayor
are only the latest victims of what has become a “universal means of
discrediting” non-Russians upset by Moscow’s actions – charges often via anonymous telegram
channels of nationalism and separatism, Aleksandra Garmazhapova says.
In Kalmykia, the Kavkazr journalist
says, one anonymous channel said that those opposed to the appointment of a
Russian as mayor would soon be demanding “expelling from the republic all
Russians” (instagram.com/p/B4KVbOSgC0g/?igshid=dnfvb7bwr3ar
and (kavkazr.com/a/gorditsya-prinadlezhnostiyu-k-ojratam-ne-natsionalizm/30242328.html).
Similar charges, Garmazhadpova
continues, were levelled last month at Buryat activists who were protesting
against the manipulation of election results, although these more
conventionally were contained in signed articles rather than via anonymous telegram
channels (regnum.ru/news/polit/2734088.html).
In neither case, activists say, did
anyone raise nationalist slogans; but the regime has chosen to view any criticism
of the center and its policies as inherently nationalist and potentially
separatist, clearly in the hopes that such charges will have the effect of
discrediting those who complain.
But these activists argue that the
Russian charges are proving counterproductive. Instead of intimidating people,
they are calling attention to problems larger than those the protesters had
been raising and thus to the asking of questions which does open the way to
what might be more properly described as the first signs of nationalism.
That reality is reflected in a new
song that Kalmyk protesters are singing, a song that goes well beyond the
issues that had sparked the protest in the future, issues that the authorities have
refused to address. Thus, by their heavy-handed approach, the powers that be appear
to be producing what they most fear (kavkazr.com/a/sharaev-interview/30245956.html).
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