Russia is not going in a good direction, people. A scary brand of religious fanaticism is promoted by the government that refuses to respect its citizens in any significant way and offers religious hysteria as compensation for depriving people of their most basic rights. The results of the so-called democratic elections are falsified and everybody knows it. (Everybody, that is, except American journalists who keep screeching about “democracy in Russia”, as if it weren’t the greatest joke of the recent decades.) The country produces nothing and only manages to keep afloat by exporting oil. My readers are an intellectual bunch, so I won’t explain why an economy that is tied to a single natural resource is hopeless.
Russia’s official ideology is profoundly racist. There is a widespread hysteria around the supposedly imminent extinction of the white people and the terrifying spread of the brown folks of scary and barbaric ethnicities. The Russians seem to have forgotten that only seventy years ago, Hitler was planning to exterminate all Slavs as an inferior, barbaric race. The so-called “demographic crisis” is discussed in the Russian media in such dramatic ways that you’d think the planet was on the brink of extinction as a result of depopulation (rather than the opposite.)
The Russian authorities are worried that the Russian women don’t procreate enough to make up for the advent of the brown people*. So they do all they can to force women into procreating. A while ago, I reported on the ridiculous campaign that attempted to shame women into having more children. As was to be expected, this was immediately followed by an assault on women’s reproductive freedoms. A piece of legislation is now being pushed through Duma (the Russian joke of a Parliament) that will impose waiting periods women have to submit to before getting an abortion and that will allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions on religious grounds**.
During the waiting period, a psychologist and a social worker will persecute women who seek abortions, telling them ridiculous fairy-tales about how they will be psychologically damaged for life if they refuse to have an unwanted child. This is a very poor country, mind you. Just think about how dedicated its government must be to the cause of stripping women of their reproductive freedoms if it’s willing to waste money on psychologists and social workers whose only job will be to hound women who request abortions.
Even though the healthcare system in Russia is free, abortions are now to be excluded from the list of free services. As a result, rich women will be able to be in control of when and whether they give birth, while indigent women (of whom Russia boasts staggering numbers) will be forced to procreate or seek clandestine, dangerous abortions.
There are millions upon millions of orphans in Russia. These children live in horrible conditions. Some are kept in orphanages that are so bad it would break your heart to see what they look from the inside and to hear what the poor kids kept there have to go through. As a result, many kids run away. They become homeless and are exploited in all kinds of ways by adult criminals.
The government that has done nothing to help these kids is now forcing indigent women to bring even more unwanted miserable babies into the world.
If this sounds completely nuts, I want to remind you that Russia imposes an obligatory period of military service on all its young males. Except, of course, the rich ones who can pay a bribe and get out of the military service obligations.
*If you are shocked by the rhetoric, that’s good. On my blog, at least, you’ll hear the actual terminology that is used in Russia to discuss these issues. The mainstream media in the US are so dedicated to promoting the myth of the democratic Russia that you don’t get to hear the truth from them.
** In the context of Russian history, this is the funniest thing anybody could suggest. After decades of complete and utter atheism during the Soviet era, people who are of the age that allows them to be doctors cannot possibly be religious in Russia today.
Clarissa's Blog 
*the Russian women don’t procreate enough to make up for the advent of the brown people*
Who are those brown people? Illegals from Caucas?
*If this sounds completely nuts, I want to remind you that Russia imposes an obligatory period of military service on all its young males.*
USA had the same not so far ago, with quite a few US bloggers thinking that obligatory service today would partly limit USA’s wars abroad, so lack of an obligatory service can be a double-edged sword. It’s easier to support X wars abroad and buy lies, if not you and your family are the ones at risk. At least, that’s what those US bloggers think and I can’t find a logical error in it.
Many countries have an obligatory service. Israel, f.e. has to have it and women serve too. If USA had to, like Israel, they would make it obligatory again. It isn’t a sign of backwardness, like you put it here. What is such a sign is how this service looks like: dedovshina in Russian army, generals ordering soldiers to build them private homes, etc.
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‘Illegals from Caucas?”
-From many of the former Republics. At this particular moment, it seems like the Kirgiz people are the most hated bucnh. And then there is the “yellow threat” from the Chinese.
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How will Chinese move to Russia, unless Russians invite them? Are they afraid of being forced in the future to invite Chinese because of demographic crisis?
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Actually, huge parts of Russia (behind the Urals) are already inhabited by large numbers of the Chinese. Russian Siberia is on the way of becoming Chinese. People in the border areas keep traveling to China and vice versa. Since nobody but the Chinese wants to live and work in the area, this makes a lot of sense.
Recently, there has been a huge scandals surrounding the illegal Chinsese merchants as far to the West as Moscow.
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“It isn’t a sign of backwardness, like you put it here. ”
-I couldn’t disagree more. In Russia, the military draft is GENDER-BASED. Forget about hazing, forget about the horrible conditions of service. It is based on gender. Is there a greater barbarity than that?
Besides, I consider any country with an obligatory military service to be an unlivable place. I would leave immediately any place that treated me like cattle that can be sacrificed against my will at any moment. If a person cannot even choose when to die or when to put one’s life in mortal danger, what’s the point of such a society? The only reason why people gather into societies is to diminish the risk of violence done to them. If being in a society put you in mortal danger, then to hell with such a society, in my opinion.
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*Is there a greater barbarity than that?*
Yes, only in Israel it *isn’t* gender-based. Switzerland and Norway aren’t backward imho.
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Switzerland and Norway have very very little chance of participating in military conflicts.
Still, military draft is an atrocity.
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Still, military draft is an atrocity.(Clarissa)
I guess that depends on how close your enemies are.
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Yes, the Russians have a tendency to see enemies everywhere. 🙂
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In the Spring of 2007 Switzerland invaded Liechtenstein. They were guided back to Switzerland by the Liechtenstein police. Apparently they also did it in 1985 when the locals served them coffee and cookies before showing them the way back. This information came from a Swiss friend who is highly skeptical of their vaunted military tradition.
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Really? That is very funny. Why would they do that?
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Because the border is not marked, so if a patrol gets lost in the alps, they might walk past it. (It’s on the maps of course, but not in the landscape.) I guess it would be possible to make that mistake in most European countries since the borders are not usually marked.
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Ah, thank you for explaining this. I didn’t get it at first.
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Nothing worse than natal nationalism. On a related note, someone reported spotting a “support our unborn troops” bumper sticker. The Russian situation as you are describing it sounds like a replay of the Romanian situation.
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Natal nationalism is exactly the word for it. Thank you for suggesting it! I actually never heard this expression before.
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I have been waiting for russia going on a War on Terror themselves and try to reunite with all the *stans that “secceded” after the fall of the UdSSR.
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They do, indeed, see that as a goal and have been making efforts in that direction for a while. Of course, the Americans are so terrified of the Russians that they pretend not to notice.
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