02.06.2017, Russia.
The behavior of the Member of Saeima (the Latvian Parliament ― Editor) Edvīns Šnore is not anti-Russian xenophobia but dehumanization, the leader of the Essence of Time social movement, Sergey Kurginyan, said on June 1 speaking in the First Studio talk show at Channel One.
The show discussed examples of anti-Russian xenophobia in western media and western politicians’ statements. As Sergey Kurginyan explained, when someone says “our values are different” in a discussion around Russia or the West, this can be called “anti-Russian xenophobia” or “anti-Western xenophobia”; however, “when people are branded lice etc., that is dehumanization, and in this particular case it is applied to Russian people, not the state”. The political analyst reminded how this process began in the Baltic States, “After the collapse of the USSR, a de facto apartheid regime was established in the Baltic States, which was essentially ignored by the West. Leaving aside Russia, which might have been weak, reluctant or unaware of the conflict… But the point is that it was ignored by human rights organizations worldwide. Neither Amnesty International nor anyone else cared. I talked to them, and I told them, ‘This is apartheid, don’t you see? It discredits all democratic values, it discredits the UN, it discredits international law!’ They waived it off saying that ‘It would not be acceptable for Zimbabwe, but towards Russians it is fine!’ This [such policy ― Rossa Primavera News Agency] is called ‘the formation of Russian ghettos for the final solution of the Russian problem’.”
The leader of the Essence of Time movement emphasized the danger of an escalation of the anti-Russian xenophobia into something more serious, “This is the formation of a final scenario which, instead of discussing whether Russia should be a democracy, an empire, or whatever else, implies that there must be no Russia at all! As Piłsudski said, ‘I must come to Moscow and write on the Kremlin wall: Speaking Russian is prohibited’; this formula is the new formula of the Cold War. The second Cold War is extremely dangerous, much more dangerous than the first one, because it targets the Russian people themselves, not states.”
The Member of Saeima Edvīns Šnore in his election campaign article in a National Alliance’s newspaper last week compared Russians living in Latvia with lice, “As Minister of Social Affairs Alfrēds Bērziņš used to say, once you let the Russian louse in your fur coat you’ll never get it out anymore. Newcomers, as well as local Russian-speaking people, who discredited, abused, and defamed Latvia in the time of the USSR, have not left Latvia so far. At least, not as many as Latvians wish.”
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
