A few things I want to say following Saturday’s “Stop Feeding the Caucasus” rally The day before, Roman Dobrokhotov dobrohotov and I were half-heartedly bickering about it on Twitter, and Vladimir varfolomeev suggested holding something like a debate on Echo of Moscow (a Russian radio station). Which is exactly what happened on the morning of the rally. Here, you can watch it. Or read it. The rally itself went well—thanks to the organizers. The crowd was fairly small, around 300–500 people, but everything was very civilized and there were no incidents of any kind.
This is important for the campaign’s future success. There are lots of photo reports online. Here I’m trying to look heroic and stern:
from here And here I’m not anymore:
from here 3. Sergei Aleksashenko wrote an interesting open letter in which I am one of the addressees. It seems to me that Sergei has fallen into the traditional liberal trap and is really describing various chimeras and prejudices: "The virus of nationalism is very dangerous. Add a packet of yeast and we’ll all die. Pogroms will begin". I do not see any threat of universal catastrophe in discussing budget equality, fairness, and whether subsidies are justified. Quite the opposite. Still, debate on this subject is always useful, and I recommend reading his letter. It looks like a full-fledged debate is starting up between him and Milov. One. Two. I would only ask Sergei not to call me Hitler anymore. Let’s start with Pol Pot or, I don’t know, Bormann instead. 4. More debates of all kinds, generally speaking. I am absolutely certain that everyone who takes part in a substantive discussion of the issue will sooner or later admit that the campaign’s slogans are appropriate and justified. Look at the direct subsidies. Look at the investment programs of state monopolies. Look at the budget guarantees. Look at the ratio of taxes collected to subsidies (a truly excellent table). Look at the funding of local security forces. Look at the unjustified lowering of regional taxes. (By the way, that’s an interesting topic. Here is a curious example involving the main attribute of power in the Caucasus—a Porsche Cayenne:
The Porsche Cayenne 4.8 Turbo AT engine has exactly 500 horsepower, and the vehicle tax for such a car is 5,000 rubles in Dagestan, versus 75,000 rubles in St. Petersburg.) Draw your own conclusions.