16.12.2021
http://transcript.duma.gov.ru/node/5754/
“Day of the COVID.”
“This day there is only one discussion of significant importance: QR codes for fighting the pandemic as well as other measures.”
They wanted to skip to next day, when they got to reminisce about life under COVID. Revisiting all the old arguments for and against vaccination, the concern for privacy versus government influence and “anti-vaxxers” versus “vaxxers” triggered a lot of sour memories.
“Pretty close to home, these discussions.”
“The QR-codes issues really divides the parties. The counter argument is that it divides the country into two. Only details is that contrary to Western perceptions, the communists are against and the liberalists are in favour.”
Maurice, who had developed a soft spot for Zhirinovsky’s brashness, couldn’t escape a bad feeling that fate had it in for the old geezer.
“The CPRF and A Just Russia against, LDPR and United Russia in favour. The rest are divided. Zhirinovsky has been roaring about the need for vaccination all along.”
ZHIRINOVSKY V.V. (LDPR)
For two years I have been hearing that we need to persuade. Why persuade the people - you cannot persuade each other: you are sitting here without masks, the majority of you, including the presidium.
[…]
22 years ago I hung a sign on my office door: “No handshakes! No hugs! No kisses!” What, did we have an epidemic? Nothing, silence. 22 years later this infection came. Today they tell you: no need to shake hands, but you stretch them out day and night, you have a grasping reflex. It’s all from the Bolsheviks: they were returning from prison, they had to greet those with whom they were in the same cell, kiss, hug… This is also not allowed, stop doing this, you are deputies!
“They say he claimed to have been vaccinated eight times!
He looked in horror on the carelessness of those around him regarding vaccination. Two months later he contracted COVID and died from it.”
“Yeah… God he must have been angry when that happened.”
17.12.2021
http://transcript.duma.gov.ru/node/5757/
Benedict - a benevolent communist by innate nature - had of late spent considerable time adjusting his perceptions to the CPRF. In it he clearly recognised a fibre of old school communism, but also an undecipherable layer.
“The CPRF in some ways reminds me of a surviving enclave of monarchists lingering around after the fall of some monarchy due to some coup. They still have that air of scientific social analysis but it’s mixed with something that seems like identity. In a way I admire their staunch adherence to old principles. The party has a lot of fighting spirit left in it. But I cannot determine whether they are classical communists or somehow a nationalised version of communists.
Here, once again, they bemoan the Belovezha accords.”
Benedict wanted to find the original text for the treaty. He visibly cringed.
“I like that Wikipedia is source based. They cite RFE/RL. I wouldn’t trust Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty an inch when it comes to reporting on a Russian perspective.”
Maurice didn’t flinch. He was busy reading.
“The 17th reveals some of the sentiments that constitute the shared Russian psyche. Belovezha… mixed feelings. As usual we learn a lot by looking at the radical extremes: CPRF against LDPR.”
“Belovezha take 1:”
DMITRY GEORGIEVICH NOVIKOV (CPRF)
These December days marked exactly 30 years since the Belovezhskaya crime. This event turned into a tragedy for the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
“Belovezha take 2:”
CHERNYSHOV B.A. (LDPR)
We are talking about Belovezhskaya. Of course, Belovezhskaya could not have happened without the tragedy of 1917. Just as the Belovezhskaya crime would not have been possible without the fact that hundreds, millions of communists in Moscow did not come out to support and defend their country. Only Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky and the LDPR came out then. This is also about history.
“Toppling statues and destroying monuments, take 1:”
DMITRY GEORGIEVICH NOVIKOV (CPRF)
The call to destroy monuments to Lenin is not only a slap in the face of my personal convictions, for example, it is definitely an anti-national position, and a nation has the right to defend itself.
[…]
Nikolai Svanidze proposed to begin demolishing Lenin monuments throughout the country, and other ideas with which the Soviet Union was destroyed were also heard again. Let me remind you that it was these ideas that provoked the Osh massacre, stirred up the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, made possible Tbilisi’s attempt to carry out a military purge in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and created a situation of confrontation between Moldova and Transnistria.
“Toppling statues and destroying monuments, take 2:”
BORIS ALEXANDROVICH CHERNYSHOV (LDPR)
Not far from the cathedral stands a monument to Alexander III. A group of party comrades led by Vladimir Ulyanov approaches it, Vladimir Ulyanov throws a rope around the neck of the Russian emperor like a lasso and together with his party comrades pulls it so tight that the emperor’s head falls off. That’s when the most important thing began: the rewriting of history began, the fight against monuments and the thousand-year history of our country began.
“In general it is clear that the Liberals will not allow the Communists’ narrative to gain foothold. But both parties become furious when the rest of the world disavows Russia or even just singular Russians. The language crisis alone bears witness to that.”
BORIS ALEXANDROVICH CHERNYSHOV (LDPR)
Everything connected with Russians and the Russian language is simply erased from schools. Ukraine, other countries - all these are examples of how our country is simply left without those people who can come and speak the same language with us. And unfortunately, there is no reaction from us. Russian schools are closing, more than 200 Russian schools have closed in Ukraine in a year - and we do not talk about it.
“Right now the Duma is a club – certainly just as much as the Rada is or the American senate. Their pride can be hurt, their identity is linked to their culture.”
“At this point we have seen plentifully what is going on in foreign countries at this point. They want to shed themselves of all vestiges of Russian culture, particularly Soviet culture. It’s a modern age phenomenon, decolonisational psychological self-healing.”
“Novikov cites CPRF’s grand old Zyuganov, that liberal actions …”
[…] once again convince us of the correctness of what Zyuganov said long ago: there is a bold equals sign between decommunization and Russophobia
“And that explains the pressure systems of today quite well. Non-russian cultures develop a rash-like relation to Russian culture. They shed it, whereupon the Russians freaks out.”
“Lantratova mocks a “Let’s Go!” – a textbook by Stanislav Chernyshov… »distinctive feature of this textbook is the formation of a negative stereotypical image of Russia, whose residents are presented as chronic alcoholics, officials as bribe takers, teachers as drug addicts«”
LANTRATOVA YA. V., (A JUST RUSSIA - FOR TRUTH)
For example, law enforcement officers complain that they never have enough money and their wives complain about their salaries. A university teacher on the pages of the textbooks reports that he wants to change his job because (I quote) stupid students do not listen to his lectures and only when he takes drugs, the students say that his lectures are very interesting. According to the authors of the textbook, life is hard in Russia for bandits: three pistols, they have to vacation in Siberia.
— Latvia —
“After this, the conversation turns towards Latvia’s 11 November 2021 decision to ban the culturally significant Saint George Ribbon. In all fairness, the law in question also forbade Nazi symbols and overt exhortations at dividing Latvians as well as SS-symbols.”
“Yeah, but we need to read the Latvian discussions behind these acts. We don’t know what is stirring in any country unless we peek.”
BORIS ALEXANDROVICH CHERNYSHOV (LDPR)
In March 2018, the Latvian Saeima adopted amendments to the Education Law in the final reading, stipulating that from 2019, in the 2019-2020 academic year, the transition to teaching in Latvian at the secondary school stage will begin. Over the years of Latvia’s independence, the number of Russian schools has decreased by 57 percent, 94 schools remain, there are no Russian schools in small towns in Latvia. This did not happen even during the Nazi occupation.
“Trigger point one: (Perceived? actual?) Russian cultural erasure.”
“Trigger point two: References to nazism:”
Every year our veterans, especially those who still live in Latvia, see a procession of Nazi collaborators from among the Latvian units of the “Waffen SS” and their ideological heirs marching through the streets of Riga.
“Russians react to Nazi symbolism just as much as Latvians and Ukrainians react to Soviet symbolism.”
And of course, the traditional product that Latvia sells to the entire West is Russophobia. In our draft resolution, in the statement of the State Duma, we, the deputies of the State Duma, strongly condemn the policy of the Republic of Latvia aimed at infringing on the rights of Russian compatriots living in the territory of this state. We believe that the ban on the use and wearing during public events of one of the main symbols of the Great Victory over Nazism - the St. George ribbon
“Maria Butina choses to focus on the decision makers, not the people – it’s a bit like hearing Victoria Nuland make statements about the actions of Putin being authoritarian and to the disadvantage of his own people.”
BUTINA M.V., UNITED RUSSIA
Our statement in support of the rights of Russian compatriots living in Latvia to the St. George ribbon is not against the Latvian people and, God forbid, not a threat to them. Our people, like no one else on earth, know the price and importance of peace. This statement is a warning to the ruling elite of Latvia not that, as the collective West is trying to show, the Russians are coming, but that a nation that has forgotten history is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. The ban on the St. George ribbon is a crime by the Latvian authorities, first and foremost, against their own people. A betrayal of the memory, for example, of Senior Lieutenant Alexander Ivanovich Gruzdin - he became the first Latvian and Latvian to earn the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, the pilot did not live to see Victory Day; no, he was not repressed, he died in 1943 while performing a combat mission. Gruzdin’s ashes are buried here in Russia, in our hearts – in Moscow, at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Benedict leaned back for a while and looked at Maurice, who leaned back and looked at him.
“Okay. It may now show in the business of a day in a legislator’s life, but just like we saw in the Rada, a lot of emotions are stirring just beneath the surface.”
“Dangerous emotions giving rise to actions that are perfectly easy to both interpret and over interpret if you are one or two countries away. In the latter case, you have a well-tuned machine of interlocking developments that can only escalate to the point of war.”
“Allow me to draw the gloomy conclusion:
The worst thing for world peace is not authoritarianism but democracy.”
/PARADOX