Rodina (Motherland) is a fairly young political party, lead by Dmitry Rogozin, a retired three-star general. A few days ago Rodina started airing a political advertisement, which has sparked a lot of controversy and frustration for Azerbaijanis. The attention this ad has received supports my thesis about a growing Russian idea of self identity, through more aggressive nationalism and fascism.
The video shows three surly Azerbaijanis eating watermelon and throwing the peels on the ground; to make their nationality clear, Azerbaijani music is playing in the background. A dignified Russian mother is walking by pushing her child in a pram, stepping on the peels. One of the Azerbaijanis insults the Russian lady. All this is witnessed by Rogozin and his vice president; this time Terminator music starts playing in the background. They ask the Azerbaijanis to "clean the space", but the Azerbaijanis ignore them. Then Rogozin puts a firm hand on one of the Azerbaijanis, and demands of him: "Do you understand Russian?" That's when the logo of Rodina appears, and the words below the logo say "We will clear Moscow of the dirt".
If you don't believe this story, you can watch the video yourself.
Rogozin is a smart man, he knows exactly what appeals to the Russian nation; the idea of resurgent nationalism does. The Azerbaijani ambassador is very concerned with the content of this video, while the Moscow city parliament doesn't see anything disturbing in it. The Russian General Prosecutor's office forwarded the video to one of the Moscow universities for the evaluation, to determine if the video has racist content, which is pathetic, because the content is as racist and nationalistic as it can get.
While the Prosecutor's office is undecided, the video is being aired on the major Russian TV channels. As a Russian, who talks to Russian people every day by phone and e-mail, I can assure you, that Rodina just gained a lot of votes in the next election, and the video is a hit.
The video did make a powerful statement, though I did not know a word of Russian. It was obvious the men were disgusting disrespectful pigs.
I suppose it is racist, in that those who were portrayed as pigs were of a different national origin. However, if the content is based on truth, it is a valid message in my opinion.
When I first saw the photos, I thought the Rogozin was Ted Turner.
Do you think the recent violence in Western Europe could spread to Russia?
Answering Patrick: I think that spread of immigrant violence in Russia is absolutely impossible. There are two reasons why not: 1) immigrants in Russia don’t have any welfare or social support from the state, their legal rights aren’t protected at all; many times they get murdered, and no one even cares. They come to Russia to work hard and make as much money as they can. Spread of violence in France is caused by a socialist welfare structure of the state, when one doesn’t really have to work to survive, he can just exist, and get all the support from the state. At some point, that individual starts thinking that he is entitled to everything he has, and even more; and on top of that he has all the free time on his hands to go out and participate in the car burning “protestsâ€. Russian immigrants are barely surviving and working hard – they are busy, and happy with what they have.
Second reason is the Russian law enforcement (and American for that matter). I don’t want to go into the reasons why French allow chaos and violence in their streets for so long (weeks!), but I’m sure that such kind of protests would’ve not lasted for over few hours in America, or in Russia. I’m not advocating for violence, as a tool of dealing with social issues, but I’m advocating for common sense, rule of law, and safety of private property and innocent lives.
Hey! Not do it There are two reasons why not: 1) immigrants in Russia don’t have any welfare or social support from the state, their legal rights aren’t protected at all; many times they get murdered, and no one even cares.