MOSCOW — “Time to shove off” is the name of a Web site for people who are fed up with life in Russia, and it is becoming a catchphrase for those dismayed by the newly announced plans of Vladimir V. Putin to keep a grip on power for perhaps two more terms as president.Read the rest here.
“A year ago I told all my friends who were leaving that I would never do that, no way!” wrote a magazine editor named Yevgeniya Lobacheva in a posting on another Web site. “But I have only one life. Twelve years! I will be 43!”
Mr. Putin has already been in power for 12 years — the first eight as president, the past four as a prime minister with de facto executive power. Now, the prospect of what many Russians are already calling a “period of stagnation” has set off a new wave of declarations of nonallegiance to a nation where corruption and an inflexible top-down system are squeezing off options for change and personal advancement.
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3 comments:
Russia's loss may again be the West's gain. Whereas in the past most Russian emigrees were Jewish, nowadays they are Orthodox and they bring the Faith with them. Already here in Europe I'm seeing huge numbers of Russians. In my town there is a Russian Orthodox church that is literally packed out the door with faithful, both young and old, men, women, and children. I feel that God can use this as a way to re-Christianize the West, and I'm happy to see it happen.
Russian nationalism/patriotism is a rare bird as it is. Nearly everyone educated in the USSR knows the Soviet anthem (old words and all - doubt the new words are sticking) and loves their old homeland, while everyone raised in the Yeltsin chaos and since has no loyalty to anything except their own personal advancement. And virtually everyone who's not at the top is united by resentment over the growing gap between rich and poor.
I'm painting with broad brushstrokes, but I think it's safe to say that the majority are genuinely happy with Putin as long as he provided economic opportunities and security. Unless something goes wrong with one of those two areas I doubt we'll see floods of Russians pouring into the West.
Off topic--Joseph Black's "Onesimus Online" seems to have been shut down. Given that his most recent blog title is "a time to start blogs and a time to stop them" it seems that this is a deliberate move.
Considering the difficult things he's had to do, I pray the best for him!
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