21.12.2021
http://transcript.duma.gov.ru/node/5760/
“This entire day… not a word about Ukraine.”
“Longer prelude about achievements in industry. Ramp-up of materials used in the pandemic, medical supplies. Work towards hydrogen-based transportation. Work towards self-driving trucks, self-sailing ships. Russian made aircraft, luxury cars, planes. Moderate production growth in spite of the pandemic.”
“Animal welfare laws for ‘our smaller brothers’, harsher penalties for gross acts of pedophilia, carbon neutrality projects and forest fires. Road safety, better labelling of drugs. Again, this could be any country in the world.”
“Even the Communists limit themselves to a very small quip on adopting the Chinese socialist system.”
NINA ALEXANDROVNA OSTANINA (CPRF)
You recommended that we use the Chinese experience and do it comprehensively. I think it would not be too bold to say that there is only one way to do this - to return to the system that is now in China. I hope this will not be considered a call to overthrow the constitutional system in our country? Thank you.
“… But is quickly cut down by the chairman …”
CHAIRPERSON
Nina Aleksandrovna, if you had not destroyed socialism together with the country, then we could talk about it, but that is another topic. We have a sad date on the 25th, so we can talk about it on Saturday, but only outside the framework of the plenary session. 30 years ago, on December 25, the flag of the Soviet Union was lowered. That’s it.
Let’s not rush about, but do everything to ensure that our country develops without looking back and rewriting other constitutions. And we must take the best from the experience of other countries, and from our own - from the experience of the Soviet period, from the experience of the Tsarist empire, there was a lot of good then too. And in general, you and I have a huge history, it is a thousand years old - we must cherish it!
“You can disagree with their foreign policies and their national pride (but only if you similarly disagrees with our foreign policies and our national pride), but I foam at the mouth over Western media outlets readily insinuating that Russia are still Communists at heart. Communism lost its foothold and never got it back.”
“A few discussions of a higher order: Has membership in the WTO been good or bad? Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade in 2021, believes it to have been worth the effort: »If we had not joined the WTO, we would not have the right to supply to a large number of countries and participate in trade disputes.«”
“Nikolay Arefiev lambasts the compliance of the government with IMF’s recommendations.”
Nikolay Arefiev
Nikolay Arefiev (CPRF)
Today our country is under the control of international organizations. Back in the early 90s, our country, when it lived under the slogan “Russia has no enemies”, was dragged into many international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the WTO. We were promised that they would help us master market levers and the country would move forward by leaps and bounds, would be the most advanced. In fact, all these promises turned out to be a lie - our presence in these international organizations was needed only to destroy our industrial and production potential, the potential of the Soviet Union, to make us consumers, which was successfully done. Well, you understand that 30 years have passed and now we fly on someone else’s planes, drive someone else’s cars, wear someone else’s clothes and shoes. And all this suggests that these international organizations continue to, well, harm our economy.
[…]
Today, the Russian economy accounts for less than 1.9 percent of the global economy, but according to the International Monetary Fund, even in 1992 it accounted for 5.17 percent, which means that our economy has fallen by almost 3 times.
After reading Minister Manturov’s answer, Benedict gleaned over LDPR’s criticisms in silence. Andrey Lugovoy reported that the average age of cars in Russia and the East in general was 22 years. Cars that old, they maintained, contributed to accidents and pollution.
Benedict avoided the topic altogether, thinking about Maurice’s EV compared to his old stinky oil dripping monster which should have been banned from the streets.
“Kravchenko Denis Borisovich from United Russia disagrees with CPRF.”
KRAVCHENKO D. B. (UNITED RUSSIA)
In the remaining seconds I want to emphasize: dear friends, we are already flying domestic planes, driving domestic cars, launching domestic carrier rockets and satellites, our companies are creating quite competitive river transport. Thank you for your work - and only together!
“Nothing here. Let’s move on. Tomorrow is the last day of 2021 in the State Duma.”
Benedict had another silent moment. There was something about the differences between the CPRF and United Russia he couldn’t put his finger on.
“You know, I’m accustomed to see Communism as fact based, statistical.”
“Yeah… Looks like what they are doing in the Duma as well, right? Presenting analyses produced within the party.”
“Yes. But then United Russia and government members respond, usually with figures and calculations as well. It’s not that CPRF employs quantitative measures and the others do not. The government and the majoritarian party are also fact-driven. Probably more so.”
“What of it… are you surprised that other parties than the Communists can handle statistics as well?”
“It’s not that… There is still a difference. It’s like the Communists are still on a crusade to change the world. When a United Russia member presents statistics, she does so like a rationalist. When a CPRF member presents statistics, he does so out of a need to save the world that never seems to age. Like he is driven by something more than what he admits to himself.”
“I think you have a soft spot for Marxism which has blinds you to the radiancy of other philosophies.”
Interlude
Maurice looked at the clock.
“Today is September 11th.
No commemoration today it seems. Too many headlines of bigger importance. It took the world 23 years to get over 9/11.”
“It took them few months of shock. What we saw was the usual ‘right to feel angry’ about something under the guise of empathy with the victims.”
“No, I think it’s genuine. People imagine the horrors, and that mental picture gnaws away at you. Is that not empathy? Take your time to answer. Likewise, when people see the widowed grieving over their devastating loss, same thing. Not empathy?”
“What you there describe is empathy. And you feel that this specific depiction is applicable on a large scale? Collective memory is unable to remember true pain. But it’s substitution - anger - that’s a different matter. We remember the resolve, the commitment, the course set.”
“Exactly! Crimes followed by acts of revenge. Not justice?”
“Perhaps it is. It’s a man’s world. Acts of revenge in the shape of indiscriminate firing of all canons. You always kill a little more than intended. The wrecking ball of revenge now plunges back.”
“Which is why you substitute revenge with justice.”
Those words let straight to the next day in the Duma, 22.12.2021 …
“But Justice must be blind. On this last working day of the Duma Gennady Zyuganov of CPRF invites to an exhibition, Children of Donbass, showing images of children who grew up under civil war and shelling. I don’t know if the exhibition only shows separatist children or also those on the non-separatist side of the line. They are all children of war.
There is an unrelated indie movie, “The Donbass Children” whose creator, Dankov, stated “When I first went to Donbass as an amateur journalist, I felt myself ashamed. Shame on the “fellow” journalists, who deliberately avoid the topic of Donbass, shame on the whole “democratic community” that has buried its head in the sand. It is hard to believe that deliberate war crimes have been committed daily in the geographical centre of Europe six years already, but it’s a fact.”
Justice..? The international community quickly went on the ‘Putin did it’ band-wagon, effectively making the separatist’s war Russia’s war. And presto! Justice was now only a matter of Russias illegal annexation. Not a separatist movement. The world turned a blind eye towards the conflict and nobody cared for the children of Donbass - no matter their ethnicity.”
“But look at what the Communists state they have been doing! They send convoys of food to Donbass and they raised demands that Putin must recognise DPR and LPR as separate political entities that must be put under a protective umbrella. That in effect makes it a pan-Russian war, not a local separatist phenomenon.”
“Sure. So how do you suggest we disentangle this mess?
If the civil war was only the choice of Ukrainian separatists fighting for their right to preserve their Russian culture and political routines in a hostile country, then justice demands that the world is rebuked for turning its blind eye towards the conflict.
But if the civil war was about Russians sticking together, then what?”
“… And the Communists repeating their old patterns of us - the clear-sighted Marxists liberated from blinding world capitalism - under constant siege by the class enemy.”
“… Then what?”
“I don’t know, Benedict! Perhaps justice also demands that Russians care about Ukrainian children?”
“Justice does! Dammit, it does! If the world consisted of more brave people reminding us all to always see the human in all of us, then perhaps we could have avoided this massive escalation. But societies isolate themselves with their own mass media stirring up a frenzy. Show me a Ukrainian, a Russian, an American or a European news organisation that does not fit this pattern.
It is always understandable that an ethnicity cares for itself, but it is sadly also unacceptable to isolate yourself in a pressurised closed container.”
Awkward silence.
“Let’s get on with it.”
22.12.2021
http://transcript.duma.gov.ru/node/5765/
“As you mentioned before, the day starts with CPRF’s Zyuganov reporting from a Defense Ministry meeting.”
ZYUGANOV G.A., LEADER OF THE CPRF FACTION.
Yesterday, the President delivered another very important speech at the Defense Ministry board meeting – it reminded me of the Munich speech – and he particularly emphasized that our security is under threat. I fully share his assessments, as well as the position of Shoigu, who demands that all Armed Forces be united, and that society support the country and the army as much as possible in this difficult time.
“The most accurate description I dare venture is that there is an overlap between Putin’s concerns and the Communist’s. Putin sees the encroaching West as primarily a geopolitical concern. His ideal view of Russia is nothing like the CPRF’s dream. But because they overlap in security matters, Western pundits are likely to project their anti-Soviet anxieties from voices in the CPRF directly onto Putin.”
“The 22nd is also the day of the dire warning by Zhirinovsky which by the way made it to Wikipedia.”
“Yea, we came across that earlier. The »This will not be a year of peace, this will be the year when Russia finally becomes a great country again, and everyone should shut up and respect our country«- speech.”
“Indeed. The context is a bit lost as always. Although Wikipedia generally usually does a good job of maintaining neutrality.”
ZHIRINOVSKY V.V., LEADER OF THE LDPR FACTION.
It is gratifying that in December 2021 we felt the scent of the Russian Spring. For the first time in many years, especially in the last 30 years, the voice of Russian diplomacy was heard: here are our points, implement them, but do not choose them individually - either implement them all, or we will launch another point due to your failure to implement these points. That’s right! Because it may be too late, we must not allow June 22. Stalin kept waiting: what if it doesn’t happen, what if it gets better? - and we waited, three million were taken prisoner and half the country was burned because the order was not given in time. Now - in time; the whole world sees the program: we demand, we wait, we hope. And we do not threaten anyone! They threaten us - foreign troops are standing at our border, weapons are being brought to the adjacent side. Everything is like in 1941: German divisions keep coming, bringing weapons, and not only German, but also Hungarian, Romanian, and Italian - all of Europe was in 1941! And now there are 30 countries in NATO, all of Europe: they train and prepare saboteurs.
“»Everything is like in 1941« is probably a contentious statement.”
“But it does show that there is a whole defensive consistency to the Russian invasion in February that the Western media treacherously eliminated from their reporting.”
“They all have emotions that are legit… well, can you ever call an emotion illegal?”
“Agree. Emotions are dangerous, but not illegal.”
“We should endeavour to dig out all the manifestos of even the most extreme group. Azov, Right Sector, Russian ultra-nationalists, all the batshit crazy think tanks in the US and even worse, Europe. It all human beings everywhere.”
“The only danger is possessing just one radio.”
Reading silence.
“Long before Trump there was Zhirinovsky. Trump pales in comparison. Only Zhirinovsky can get away with an end-of-the-year speech where he not only threatens war activities, but also ventures on a strange explanation on how children leads leading states men astray. Especially daughters: "
after all, children let you down, children: give, give, give, give! Especially daughters - and jewelry, and this and that … Yeltsin, or what did? Or Brezhnev did? It was his daughter who ran around all the second-hand shops, she let Brezhnev down! And Yeltsin’s daughters let him down, so to speak. You have to understand that it is precisely in our country that there are too many henpecked husbands - the only country in the world where there are fewer men. Can you understand that progress is still driven by men? Let there be gender equality, but all engineers, designers are men, and the army is men. Although women may be somewhere, no one argues - equality of rights.
“Next speaker is Mikhail Delyagin of A Just Russia. I take note that both USA and UK has sanctioned him. Let’s listen to one of those evil bastards that we have to sanction:”
Mikhail Delyagin
DELYAGIN M.G. (A JUST RUSSIA - FOR TRUTH)
Are you not shocked by the monstrous contrast between the colossal resources accumulated by the state and the most brutal disregard for the urgent needs of society? In the federal budget alone, as of December 1, the Ministry of Finance froze over 19.5 trillion - this is more than all the revenues provided for the entire year! What are we saving for? Are we going to bring things to a Maidan, after which there will be no time for taxes, so that Poroshenko and Zelensky of our own assembly have the means for merciless terror?
[…]
Marina Vladimirovna, 60, writes to me - […] “I worked as a teacher in a secondary school, retired due to arthritis, since in my condition vaccination could have negative consequences […] My salary at school over the past five years was from 5 to 7900 rubles per month, my pension was 5700 rubles.” Think about these numbers! “The rent is from 9 to 10 thousand rubles a month for a two-room apartment on the fourth floor without an elevator, 50 square meters, living space is 28 square meters. From August to October, I received a pension of 7 thousand rubles a month. The TSN “Spartak” filed a lawsuit against me for debts on utility bills due to a low income, my debts are 70 thousand. My pension card has been seized, I have no other sources of income, no money for food, medicine, or utility bills. […]”
Colleagues, who sincerely consider the citizen’s right to life to be unforgivable populism, and the budget surplus to be a greater value than human lives, I invite you to help at least Marina Vladimirovna first and foremost. I have the details - come and copy them. And let me remind you that you and I are indebted to Marina Vladimirovna and to millions, if not tens of millions of citizens of our great country, surviving like her or a little better - not because we are indebted to her because we pass laws that deprive them of work, money and a future, and often of life itself (you can reread the budget), not because we have a democracy and we are called to serve them, and not even because we earn more in a month than three quarters of our fellow citizens earn in a year, but simply because you and I are now in a warm, bright and safe room.
“Apparently you can be a humanist and still dislike the changes that took place in Ukraine in the Maidan revolution.
It would appear that in an upside-down world, some people actually perceive a pro-European turn as equivalent to turning a blind eye to poverty and despair. In Delyagin’s view, Ukraine embraced the West’s cynical penchant for economic inequality.
Of course the sanctions were an automatic mechanism seen from the point of view of the foreign ministries. But in our media sphere, the word ‘sanctions’ immediately conveys mental pictures of savagery and brutality. Those implied connotations do indeed constitute the worst kind of lie.”
“The only problem, Benedict: Nobody has ever uttered those thoughts. You must have misread the headline… Or did you?”
“Exactly, right? I and one billion other people consistently pick up the ‘wrong’ message.”
“It’s a clever little manoeuvre that one. Immense damage done and nobody to blame.”
“Of course, a similarly devious simplification is that Ukraine turned to the darker sides of capitalism. What dark side? And who did? An elite? The entire people? Close your eyes and imagine a deceitful, dishonest usurper feigning liberalism or patriotism while being ready to topple his own government in a coup in search of unlimited profit. Does it sound like a picture eliciting strong emotions?”
“It does. We need to develop this new kind of journalistic language, where the reader is in actual confrontation with the mind of a person directly. Minds speaking with minds. Shave away everything else, all your impulses and reactions.”
“The last law discussed in 2021 is on traffic violations.”
“Perhaps 2022 will be more exciting.”
/PARADOX