A common belief says that fish have very short memories—3 to 5 seconds. That’s why when someone forgets something important they’re supposed to remember, people say, “you have the memory of a goldfish.”
Still, if you bother to check, the internet will tell you that this is nonsense—fish memory is perfectly normal. For example, the croaking gourami remembers an encounter with a predator for several months.
In that sense, fish in general—and the croaking gourami in particular—come off far better than the official television channels of the Russian Federation.
Yesterday’s main weekly analytical news program ran for 134 minutes—that is, 2 hours and 15 minutes. It spent a great deal of time talking about the West’s machinations, Ukraine, the Banderites (a Soviet/Russian pejorative for Ukrainian nationalists), and plenty else besides.
In all 134 minutes of airtime, there was not a single second to mention the Moscow Metro crash THAT HAD HAPPENED FIVE DAYS EARLIER. A crash that became the deadliest in the history of the capital’s subway system. A crash in which 23 people died and several dozen more were left with severe injuries.
Yes, of course, a plane crashed. But let’s remember that there were 9 British citizens on board, and the British media have been running it on their front pages for days. The country’s prime minister is writing op-eds. Every public official is making statements.
And here, 23 people left home and will never return, and yet the flagship weekly program of VGTRK (Russia’s state broadcasting company) did not consider it worth mentioning. In 2014, you and I will spend 0.6% of the country’s annual budget to maintain it—more than 85 billion rubles.
What happened was a standard operation called “Fish Memory,” traditionally carried out by the authorities and their media toadies:
When a crash happened on the London Underground in 1975, guess how long the public group investigating its causes and looking for ways to prevent it in the future kept working? That group worked for several years. Because people died, and nothing is more important than that, and it must not be forgotten.
I’ve already spoken about political responsibility, and I won’t repeat myself. Let me give a few examples instead—that makes it clearer:
Latvia. 21.11.2013 A shopping center collapsed. 54 people died. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis resigned six days later. He said he was “taking political responsibility.”
Egypt. 17.11.2012 A school bus drove onto a railway crossing because the attendant had fallen asleep and failed to lower the barrier. 51 people died, including 49 children. Transport Minister Mohammed Rashad al-Matini resigned the same day, saying that the full blame lay with him. The head of the country’s railways also stepped down.
Slovakia. 19.01.2006 An An-24 military plane flying from Kosovo crashed because of pilot error. 44 people died; one person miraculously survived. Defense Minister Juraj Liška resigned eight days later.
Hungary. 6.10.2008 Two trains collided, apparently because of a malfunctioning signal. Four people were killed and 26 were injured. The next day, Transport Minister Pál Szabó and Hungarian State Railways CEO István Heinczinger resigned.
Here, instead, they arrested a few elderly scapegoats. Maybe those old men are guilty—but can they really be considered the main ones responsible?
Apparently, that’s exactly how it will turn out. Sobyanin has already said that the cause of the crash was “the indiscipline of rank-and-file employees”. So that means Liksutov (head of the city transport department) and Besedin (head of the Metro) can breathe easy and go on making money from tenders and procurement.
I’ve been thinking: is there something all of us together should do—or demand be done?
Literally everyone. Liberals and nationalists, those who support Ukraine and those who don’t, those who support Putin and those who don’t.
I think there is. The Metro belongs to everyone—in both the literal and figurative sense. The whole country builds and finances it. It is state-owned. It is a unique public asset, and there can be no commercial secrets in how it operates. The Metro is a monopoly, and fares are regulated separately as well. When those fares are calculated, the amount of money to be invested in safety is specified.
All of us—all decent people—have both the legal and, now after the crash, the moral right to demand that the Metro become the most transparent organization imaginable. In its finances, its technology, its contractors, its accounting—in everything.
This is the letter we prepared and sent to Sobyanin:
Not one of these documents can or should be secret. Let the mayor’s office and the transport department publish them openly, and let citizens read them.
There will be experts interested in the technical side. Transport specialists will look at some things, we at the Anti-Corruption Foundation will look at others, and accountants and auditors will examine still more.
That would be a good first step toward understanding what happened. And this is not populism, is it? And not “profiting politically from tragedy.” It is a reasonable demand that any decent person would sign—and one that Sobyanin is obliged to fulfill.
I urge everyone to be better than fish. We must not behave like VGTRK; we must not forget that a week ago our fellow citizens died in a horrific human grinder. We, our parents, our children, could have been in their place.
Support our demand. Here is a text you can copy and paste and send to the Moscow mayor’s online public reception office. It is based on our letter, just shorter. The “summary of the appeal” (500 characters) required by the site can be taken from here. The full text of the appeal (4,000 characters) is here. Enter your details (highlight the document text with your cursor and press Ctrl+C) and send it.
This should not be a demand of the Progress Party, or the Anti-Corruption Foundation, or Navalny. It is a demand of Russia’s citizens—and of Muscovites in particular.
Even if you don’t want to submit an appeal yourself (I disapprove of such people), if you support the demand for full disclosure by the Metro, then post the link on social media.
Those whose memory is worse than a fish’s are treated worse than fish. Sit under a snag and wait to be fed. But we are better than fish, aren’t we?