“DO YOU LIKE WHAT WE LEARN ABOUT THE HUMAN ANT HILL?” - Benedict was decidedly yelling from the top of a hill on the meadow located on the back side of Maurice’s house. The moment Benedict had noticed that Maurice could see him, he enthusiastically paced down the slope.
“No, I don’t.”
“Just like Soylent Green - politics is made of people. Just people.”
“The president is a person trying to be, well, a servant of the people, with meagre means: Some force, a lot of negotiation.
The assemblies are just groups with a particular standpoint. The parties are made up of people with varying standpoints. Is it good or bad to stand firm on your convictions? Nobody knows. But everybody has a standpoint on the question of usefulness of standpoints.
The voters are just segments of people and an ocean of individuals with more or less useful convictions about the neighbouring ant hill.
It begs the question: Who will take responsibility for the whole system of interactions?”
“Academics, philosophers, think tanks try to assembly it all into a whole.”
“And yet, we can clearly see that nobody is able to prevent a war. The red lines intersect and overlap. Nobody wants to move their own, and nothing can convince their enemy to move theirs.”
“It sounds like we are condoning war as the only solution…”
“Sorry, I’m not giving up on humanity.”
Happy that his friend was back to his usual self, Maurice unpacked their equipment and set up shop.
07.12.2021
http://transcript.duma.gov.ru/node/5738/
“You remember the Rada at about this time, how 2021 ended?”
“Yes. Mostly just practical matters. War was more of a rumour. The panic of war with economic instability was far worse. Relations with Russia was dead at this point. They fought against Minsk, in a continuation of the spirit of Maidan. No concessions.”
“Well… The Russian Duma seems to be 100% focussed on domestic economical issues at this point in time …”
— Ministers reporting —
Anton Olegovich Kotyakov
“Minister of Labor and Social Protection says:
The major theme is relief during the COVID crisis and dampening its impact on the weak.
25% of the children in Russia receive state benefit. Families with children receive extra benefits. Poverty down to 12.1 percent.
Create more homes for elderly. Invest in private sector addressing needs of elderly.
Digitisation, automatic pension.
Sergei Shtogrin
“Auditor of the Accounts Chamber Sergei Ivanovich Shtogrin reports:
Unemployment down to 5%. Remote and part time work rather than layoffs got them through COVID. They look at OECD countries methods and wants to employ e.g. short term jobs etc.
— Committees asking government —
“The Committee on Control (United Russia) mentions reducing queues to sanatorium treatment, difficulty for single parents to figure out what help they can get, pace of laws adopted etc.”
“Committee on Labour, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs (LDPR) mentions inflation is higher than pension increase, ~9% vs ~6%. Some criticism of rates given to e.g. sanatorium patients which is below subsistence levels. Labour protection laws.”
“Wait a second. Let me find GDP, price development, wage levels, inflation for the last five years.”
“Committee on Family, Women and Children (CPRF) talks about families still being below poverty line.”
“… Talks on insurance, safety, the Listvyazhnaya mine disaster. Rehabilitation centres and whatnot.”
“COVID and elderly having trouble with digital services.”
“Pension reform. Orphans, budget and responsibility. Calls for, when talking wage averages, to take into account the substantial differences between regions. Look here:”
It is absolutely obvious that there are areas where profitability is high, and you were right about state supervision in this area: there cannot be such low wages with billions in profit, especially in heavy industries, harmful, dangerous - therefore we fully support the president
[…] Our agriculture is now showing growth and good indicators, the owners and managers of enterprises have “Bentleys”, and expensive sports “Jaguars”, and “BMWs”, and the wages of hired workers are usually the minimum, the minimum wage - what is the ministry doing in this area
“Ukrainian MPs must regulate against corruption, Russian MPs must regulate against rampant capitalism under COVID. But one of these are demonised as insane child murderers, the other as heroes of democracy. And note: These are MPs - people holding responsibility. Not just “subjugated victims of autocracy” on the streets.”
“Of course they do contemplate confiscation of business’ profits, but this is during COVID. Many Western governments contemplated the same.”
“The Presiding Officer talks with Kotyakov A. O. again about working from regional wage averages, working to find out the exact picture in different trades etc. To get an objective basis from which to make decisions. Kotyakov agrees. It’s like the two are having a mutually respectful talk about establishing factual criteria on which decisions can be made.”
“You’re thinking it’s a remnant from the communist quest for objective material data, right?”
“Well, yes. But the constructiveness in their talk just struck me. Everybody should read it to get a sense of how earthbound Russian politics can actually be.”
— Factions’ turn next —
“CPRF (communist party) rebukes for not taking up some of their suggestions since the last mine disaster in 2010 in the same region.”
“LDPR (liberal party) talks about orphans again.”
SIPYAGIN V.V., (LDPR)
[…] at the beginning of 2020, 279 thousand orphans were registered who needed apartments. Moreover […] the average waiting period for an apartment is seven years. […] in some regions, where the budget is not very good, it exceeds 20 years.
“They really do have an orphan problem. He talks about 1B rubles required which is many times more than is invested.”
“Okay, so they discuss domestic social problems at length – longwinded, technical and number driven discussions. What about the war?”
— The war —
“This guy on a committee for compatriots abroad mentions Ukraine…”
LEONID IVANOVICH KALASHNIKOV (CPRF)
We made three very significant decisions then. One of them was made by the president based on our appeal to grant citizenship to residents of the LPR and DPR, so that they could accept our citizenship without renouncing their Ukrainian citizenship. Lavrov and I did a lot of work then. Then we expanded this to all Ukrainians - well, it was naive to demand that Ukrainians go and renounce their citizenship so that they could then receive Russian citizenship.
[…]
If that law, in particular, about the uselessness of renouncing one’s citizenship when joining the Russian one, had been adopted in the 90s, then half of Ukraine and half of Kazakhstan would have Russian passports today.
“… But the whole segment seems like he’s listing efforts to support Russians abroad. Also ethnic groups within Russia. He laments the slowness of the Duma to pass a law supporting Russian jews.”
“It’s more like… he seems almost unaware the fury the offer of Russian passports to Ukrainians raises in their neighbouring country. You remember how the Rada went haywire over this exact issue, like it was some sort sinister, devious scheme? Well, here we have Leonid, who leans back and considers what he can do for his compatriots because he is on a committee and it’s his job. Worlds apart.”
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
“Zhirinovsky, the provocateur from LDPR who is just as unconciliatorily provocative as Poroshenko of European Solidarity, has a longer segment on what the Americans fear from the resident Russians.”
ZHIRINOVSKY (LDPR)
Why are our compatriots being suppressed there? Be they are all literate. […] from Russia, mostly very literate people come, and the US is afraid of their influence on political life.
“Viktor Bout, the arms dealer - Zherinovsky claims he was indicted on intentions to commit crime alone. Konstantin Yaroshenko etc.”
Where does all this come from? The general scenario: that Ukraine is an escalation, an escalation in relation to diplomats, they are squeezing out… What do they want? For Russian embassies to be closed everywhere? That is, they do not want to fight, they are afraid, because this war will be too hard for them, which means they need to squeeze out diplomats
[…]
Where does this hatred towards us come from? We could have been allies, Catherine II saved the USA, and practically up until the First World War, during the First World War we were allies. But we had a revolution, and they decided to rob our country.
Benedict looked at Maurice and he looked back at him. Benedict spoke.
“This is a modern statement. In an age where provocative content matters more than a persistent underlying system of analysis such social economical factors, this kind of half-true arrogance constitute the modern debate. The entire host of speakers from European Solidarity is in the same boat as this guy.”
“Yes, the picture he paints is untruthful in that it is doubtful it represents a correct depiction of all who have been touched upon.”
Viktor Vodolatsky
“This next guy talks about Russophobia. Still in relation to the Russian diaspore in USA.”
VIKTOR PETROVICH VODOLATSKY (UNITED RUSSIA)
What is happening in America today is such a powerful anti-Russian, Russophobic policy. The “Anti-Russia” program, which is now spreading not only in the United States, but also in Europe, has affected our compatriots. More than 300 representatives of the Coordinating Council of Organizations of Russian Compatriots in the USA have been subjected to harsh repression: at least 20-30 representatives of various special services came to each of their homes, they were searched, they were talked to so that they would forget that they are Russian, forget that they need to speak Russian. Today, the heads of American special services have a huge desire to burn out with a hot iron, to destroy everything on the territory of the United States that is connected with Russia.
In order to protect themselves, their children and grandchildren, many compatriots are forced to renounce their language and culture, which, naturally, contradicts not only the norms of international law, but also the provisions of the national legislation of the United States itself.
“Now we learn about sociology: It doesn’t matter that the Federation is a mighty country. Sociologically speaking, they feel their culture and identity threatened. One person can feel persecuted just as much as hundred million but the latter can unite into a terrible force.”
“Story of the twentieth century if any. And it is absolutely not just the Russians who have that stance.”
“But more importantly: This is the point where we can see the impetus behind the escalation to war: Ukraine was beyond accepting anything Russian rammed down their throats. Russia is beyond accepting any suffering on behalf of their compatriots anywhere. This really IS about human being’s ordinary feelings. Those feelings do breed wars.”
And naturally, all this taken together irritates those who today are trying by any means, by any methods, to build a unipolar world.
Today, you and I stand at a watershed: on one side, evil, on the other side, good. Russia is good. Russia has always brought good, at all times and centuries, and has never attacked anyone. The United States today poses a threat to peace, they have already destroyed a number of states in order to fulfill the mission for which they, as they say, are intended - to rule the entire world. Russia is the country that today does not allow this evil to spread throughout the world.
“This rhetoric – which is a perfect mirror image of that of the EU, Ukraine, USA – is when it gets really dangerous.”
“God, we have seen this nonsense mentioned many times in the US Senate, in the Rada, by European leaders. Dangerous times ahead.”
Taisaev Kazbek Kutsukovich
“Taisaev Kutsukovich of the Communists brings the topic to the flip side of the Donbass matter, oh, and I spell it Donbass when we’re in the company of Russians, Donbas when with Ukrainians.”
TAISAEV KAZBEK KUTSUKOVICH (CPRF)
In 2014, during the inauguration of the first head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, I asked my friend what kind of assistance we, the deputies of the State Duma, could provide to the residents of Donbass. He asked for help in resolving three issues: first, recognition of the results of the referendum on the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic; second, simplified and accelerated acquisition of Russian citizenship by residents of Donbass; third, the integration of the economy of Donbass into the economy of the Russian Federation.
“Then he mentions the 13000 tons of medicine, building materials and food the CPRF has went to Donbass. And then again comes the flip side of the coin you and I have been looking for:”
We managed to resolve the issue of Donbass residents acquiring Russian citizenship in an accelerated, simplified manner. Today, there are already more than 600 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation in Donbass. Also, the President of the Russian Federation recently signed a decree laying the foundation for the integration of the Donbass economy into the economy of the Russian Federation. The war in Donbass has been going on for eight years now. People are tired of constant bombing, adults and children continue to die. Every day, the residents of Donbass are losing faith that the war will ever end, they are waiting for certainty and stability.
“Then here it comes:”
The CPRF made its choice seven years ago, we build our work with the DPR and LPR as sovereign republics. […] There is no alternative to the Minsk agreements, but given that Ukraine continues to ignore their implementation, in my opinion, we must take the decision on this issue into our own hands at the state level. Our faction has prepared a draft resolution - it will soon be submitted for consideration by the State Duma - on the recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic. The adoption of this document will be a significant measure of support for our compatriots, and we hope that all factions in the State Duma will support the CPRF initiative to adopt this resolution.
“Nothing in his speech seems to as much as hint at a consideration of issues with Ukrainian sovereignty.”
“In other words: Just as Ukraine sees it right to dominate the considerable minority of Russians in Crimea, Donbass, so does the communists see it as their right to blend these areas into the Russian economy and sphere.”
“International law in this case prioritises state sovereignty. Unlike the Leninist position, the liberal world does not equal right to self determination with right to a state of their own.”
“And frankly, without wanting to offend international law in this case, I also want to say that having read so far from the point of view of both Ukraine and Russia – I mean the emotions driving the development, and of course we disregard the hysterical examples on both sides – I see nothing that is not complete human, understandable, sometimes sad, sometimes naive. All of these political sentiments are a part of how we as people, as compatriots, hell, even as man and wife in our private life drifts together and drifts apart from each other.”
Maurice was in a state of shock. Somehow the constant Western media bombardment had desensitised him to the obvious line of thinking: That everything that happens in the political world does so because of completely sympathetic and understandable human reactions. Now it all seemed to late to learn.
“Nothing could have prevented this war.”
“Yes, something could. Us all getting off the emotional train before it smashed directly into someone else’s emotional train.”
/PARADOX