This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Russia celebrates 100th anniversary of its air force with expansion announcement
- Russia’s PM Medvedev warns of Chinese occupation of Siberia and Far East
- Russia’s Medvedev blames ‘slacker attitude’ for rocket failure
- The ‘Pussy Riot’ trial in Russia becomes a defining political event
- The renaissance of Tsarist Russia
- Putin/Medvedev split confirms that 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia was preplanned
Russia celebrates 100th anniversary of its air force with expansion announcement
Poland’s Sparks aerobatic team performs during Russia’s air show on Saturday (Xinhua)
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin led a three day air show outsideMoscow in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the RussianAir Force. Putin commented on the heroism of the pilots duringWorld War II and announced a major expansion:
“The history of the Russian Air Force knows theexamples of real bravery and self-sacrifice, hard work andoutstanding technical achievements. Military aviation has alwaysbeen of great importance in our country. And now when we areimplementing large-scale modernization of the army and the fleet,the future of the air force is definitely among thepriorities. The Russian Air Force is going to play a great part inensuring the national security. Our air bases are now busyimplementing new training schemes, with strategic jets carryingout regular flights and multi-purpose aviation groups beingformed. The army will receive over 600 new planes and 1,000helicopters by the year 2020.”
Russia’s PM Medvedev warns of Chinese occupation of Siberia and Far East
Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday issued a warningthat a huge influx of immigrants from China into Siberia and Far Eastthreatened Russia’s control of the region and its rich resources.This is not the first time that Medvedev has raised these concerns.(See
“22-Mar-11 News — Russian offer of Japanese resettlement in Siberia raises xenophobic tensions” from last year, following Japan’s earthquake andtsunami.) However, his recent comments have been the strongest yet.He announced that two new nuclear submarines would be sent to thePacific fleet, and added that it was “important not to allow negativemanifestations … including the formation of enclaves made up offoreign citizens.” He added that “More than eight million foreigncitizens came to Russia in the first six months of 2012 alone.”Russia’s Far East suffered rapid depopulation since the fall of theSoviet Union in 1991. During the 1990s, there was enormous povertyand no support from the chaotic Moscow government. As a result,population fell by as much as 50% in the region, as millions migratedeast, mostly to the European part of Russia. Reuters and Ria Novosti
Russia’s Medvedev blames ‘slacker attitude’ for rocket failure
Russia’s botched launch of two telecom satellites, one Russian and oneIndonesian, earlier this week has drawn a furious response from primeminister Dmitry Medvedev:
“I don’t know the reason why the satellites perished,be it the booster, a mechanical defect, a slacker attitude or allof it combined and multiplied by the traditional slackerattitude. But it’s simply impossible to tolerate this anylonger. We are losing our authority and billions ofrubles.”
The satellites cumulatively cost $100 million to $150 million.Moscow Times
The ‘Pussy Riot’ trial in Russia becomes a defining political event
Nadia (22), Masha (24) and Katya (29) of Pussy Riot (AFP)
A brief protest by three girls in Russia has turned into a majorpolitical event that’s embarrassing president Vladimir Putin and theRussian Orthodox Church. In February, the three girls charged up tothe front of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour during a serviceand sang a song criticizing Putin. They were ejected from the Church,and the whole thing might have been forgotten, except that the girlsput the whole performance up on YouTube. Putin is particularly vainand thin-skinned about any sort of criticism and, along with RussianOrthodox Patriarch Kirill, demanded harsh punishment for theperformance. The trial started last week. The prosecutors said thatthey were possessed by the devil, having “twitched and jumpedsatanically, throwing their legs up, rolling their heads and callingout very insulting and blasphemous words.” The trial is so absurd andludicrous, even by Russian standards, that it’s drawn internationalprotests. While performing in Moscow on Tuesday, Madonna said, “Iknow there are many sides to every story and I mean no disrespect tothe church or the government, but I think these girls … have donesomething courageous and they have paid the price for this act and Ipray for their freedom. They deserve the right to be free.” Averdict is to be announced on August 17. A light sentence will beconsidered a major political humiliation for Putin and the Church,while a harsh verdict will be embarrassing to Putin and the Church.Spiegel (Germany) and Mail&Guardian (S. Africa)
The renaissance of Tsarist Russia
From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, the Pussy Riot trialis part of the rejection of an atheist Soviet Russia, and a return tothe days of Tsarist Russia, when the government and the Church wereinextricably linked. Putin appears to consider himself something of anew Tsar anyway. In 1922, Nicolai Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov)wrote this memo to the Politburo on the destruction of the RussianOrthodox Church in order to harvest the Church’s wealth:
“We must pursue the removal of church property by anymeans necessary in order to secure for ourselves a fund of severalhundred million gold rubles (do not forget the immense wealth ofsome monasteries and lauras). Without this fund any governmentwork in general, any economic build-up in particular, and anyupholding of soviet principles in Genoa especially is completelyunthinkable. In order to get our hands on this fund of severalhundred million gold rubles (and perhaps even several hundredbillion), we must do whatever is necessary. But to do thissuccessfully is possible only now. All considerations indicatethat later on we will fail to do this, for no other time, besidesthat of desperate famine, will give us such a mood among thegeneral mass of peasants that would ensure us the sympathy of thisgroup, or, at least, would ensure us the neutralization of thisgroup in the sense that victory in the struggle for the removal ofchurch property unquestionably and completely will be on ourside.”
The Church was virtually destroyed by the Bolshevik Revolution, withbuildings destroyed and clerics jailed and murdered. World War II wasa generational Awakening era war for the Soviet Union, and the Churchbegan to revive at that time simply because Josef Stalin needed itshelp to defeat the Nazis. Russia is theoretically a secular state,but now Russia is in a new generational Crisis era, and under Putinthe relationship between the government and the Church has beengrowing constantly. A similar transition is occurring in Russia’shistoric enemy, Turkey. Turkey became a secular state under Attaturkin 1924, after the collapse of Ottoman Empire. But now, in this newCrisis era, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is restoring some ofthe conservative religious links of the Ottoman era. From the pointof view of generational theory, this parallel religious path beingfollowed by these two historic enemies is quite remarkable.
Putin/Medvedev split confirms that 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia was preplanned
A serious political split between Russia’s president Vladimir Putinand prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has been opened over a revelationthat Putin preplanned the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia and wentbehind Medvedev’s back. At the time of the invasion, Putin andMedvedev were playing a little game. Putin had been President for twoterms, and could not run for a third consecutive term, according tothe Constitution. And so, Putin arranged for Medvedev to becomePresident for one term, while Putin became Prime Minister, and liedabout the arrangement to the public. It now turns out that they liedto the public as well over the August, 2008, invasion of Georgia.Putin had already pre-planned the invasion when Medvedev took over asPresident. Medvedev wanted to negotiate the crisis, but it’s now beenrevealed that Putin illegally went around him and launched theinvasion, which resulted in Russia annexing two Georgia provinces,South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia’s parliamentary election inDecember, followed by the presidential election that returned Putin tothe presidency, were both so obviously fraudulent that most Russiansnow believe that Putin’s entire presidency is fraudulent. The newrevelation opens a split between Putin and Medvedev that may exposemore fraud. Jamestown
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Russia, Russian Air Force, Vladimir Putin,Dmitry Medvedev, Siberia, Japan, Pussy Riot,Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, Tsarist Russia,Nicolai Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), Josef Stalin,Turkey, Ottoman Empire, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,Georgia, South Ossetia, Abhkazia
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