I am very pleased with the conference that just took place. Over the past eight years I have attended a million political conferences, and I can say without the slightest doubt that this was the first time I did not have to stare at the floor while listening to some speaker and feel embarrassed. A standard feature of Russian political practice is that 20% of the speakers are idiots and another 10% are raving maniacs. The organizing committees understand this perfectly well, but still give them the floor anyway: "we mustn’t offend the movement’s veteran participants." We abandoned that vicious practice. Some spoke better, some worse, but all the speeches were sensible, substantive, and interesting. The audience really did listen not only to the first three speakers, but to everyone. There were disagreements on some points, but the main thing was affirmed: nationalism must take shape as a political force; the slogans of democracy and human rights are natural to the movement; the top priorities are to rid ourselves of discrediting elements—Hitlerites, hooligans, and gaudy pseudo-patriots—and to break out of the marginal ghetto of an inward-looking clique and find support among the educated urban middle class. As the coordinator of DPNI-Tver put it very well: the skinheads who drift into the movement are of no use. We need lawyers, economists, and journalists.
enlarge photo ... There has been a huge amount of media coverage. An interesting thing is that we repeated like a mantra a million times that we were not creating a new organization, yet many outlets reported precisely that—a new organization, some kind of "Russian National Movement," had been created. The phrase "Russian national movement" was used from the stage very often, but in the same sense as "democratic movement," "liberal movement," or "left-wing movement." We’ll have to keep that in mind and repeat the mantra a billion times next time. But maybe it’s simply that journalists always want to report the birth of a new party. The people criticizing us most are the "professional human rights activists." Alexeyeva (Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a prominent Russian human rights campaigner) among them. The refrain is the same: "this is very dangerous." Though one Vinnikov is quoted especially often: *In turn, Alexander Vinnikov, head of the movement "For Russia Without Racism," suggested that the main purpose behind creating the coalition "Russian National Movement" was to carry out a coup d’état in the country. http://www.newsru.com/russia/08jun2008/al.html *Does anyone know who this is? Maybe we should raise some money to send the man to a sanatorium; he seems exhausted. And then there’s Gleb Pavlovsky going on and on: "It’s all a snake pit, and they’ll achieve nothing because they’re missing a fun little viper like me." "On provocateurs": before the conference began, we were told that one variety of young Putin loyalists had filed notice for a picket outside the Cosmos hotel. There was no picket, but there were leaflets dropped from the roof of the conference hall and chants of "Stas Belkovsky will flush you down the toilet." The leaflet was signed "Young Russia Civic Nationalists Movement." It all looked rather comical. It got even funnier when Cosmos security started dragging the Rumol people (members of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Russia Molodaya, or Young Russia) off the roof and they began plaintively shouting to the crowd below, "security is beating us." When Belov began speaking, two little Rumol clowns who had gotten into the hall disguised as press let out a howl, tried to break through to the stage, and started throwing their favorite rubber dicks. Written on them in black marker were the words "from the Jews." They were instantly thrown face down and roughed up a bit. Really only a bit, although the police said one of them supposedly had his nose broken—I think they’re lying. The one who ended up sprawled near me had his rubber weapons stuffed down the back of his shirt and was shoved out. Then I heard some grunting behind me—it turned out the second one had a rubber dick shoved into his mouth, then was made to pick up all the others from the floor and was thrown out too. Of course, using the Rumol activists’ own rubber toys on them is not the most tolerant thing in the world, but it has to be said that their impunity has become rather tiresome. You can’t just keep letting them walk away every time. For those hungry for details: the video is online, and the press described everything in detail: *At that moment four young men from the pro-Kremlin youth movement "Young Russia" jumped up from their seats and began throwing pink dildos at Mr. Belov. The congress security team immediately subdued them and removed them from the hall. "Return the vibrators to everyone!" ordered the DPNI leader. The projectiles really were returned, and one of them was even shoved into the thrower’s mouth. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=901541 * By the way, a very important detail emerged: these goblins were accredited through REGNUM. With a real press pass bearing official stamps. The pass remained with us, and we will post a scan of it. We all remember who owns REGNUM—one Modest Kolerov, an official in the Presidential Administration responsible for the CIS and anti-Orange (anti–Orange Revolution-style) operations. So we now have proof that the Presidential Administration was directly involved in organizing all this filth. I wouldn’t be surprised if those very same rubber dicks are kept in Kolerov’s office and he signs them out to his "street fighters against Orange-ism." It’s like in Hollywood movies: the hero opens some locker and there’s a whole arsenal inside, all beautifully lit and looking menacing. In the Presidential Administration, the beautifully lit locker contains dildos and a clean-shaven snake costume. During "anti-Orange meetings," Kolerov and Surkov decorate rubber items with slogans and attach little wings to them. I think an official inquiry should be sent to REGNUM: either they open a criminal case over forged stamps and credentials, or they bury the matter and thereby admit they were involved. And we need to prepare ourselves: there will be provocations, there will be many of them, and they will be far more sophisticated and aggressive. And to everyone who took part in the conference—thank you!