Translated material
"Undoubtedly, the regime will be tightened." Researcher of hatred, human rights activist Alexander Verkhovsky - about the long -term changes that the war provokes in Russian society and the state
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Russian authorities with the help of propaganda, deputies and security forces strengthened the campaign to search for enemies within Russia. You can switch the focus of the attention of a dissatisfied society and blame them to blame for the deterioration of the life of Russians. Among such “enemies” are LGBT people, “collective West”, “Nazis” in Ukraine, opposition politicians, until recently, they were labor migrants. For more than 20 years, the Russian information and analytical center has been exploring the problems of xenophobia and nationalism in the country. Its director Alexander Verkhovsky, a former member of the Presidential Council of Human Rights, told Republic about the hatred that the state provokes in the company, to whom it is addressed and what consequences will lead to.
"The campaign against LGBT is extremely effective if you compare costs and result"
- The State Duma has just passed a law prohibiting the propaganda of “non -traditional sexual relations”, with fines of up to 10 million rubles. It is clear that the authorities need to translate public dissatisfaction with war and poverty from themselves to other objects. But why did LGBT choose such a main enemy? Is this such a light prey that society definitely does not want to protect?
- Partly so. This somewhat reminiscent of a campaign against Jehovah's Witnesses (the organization is recognized in Russia extremist and prohibited.- Republic ), which lasts many years. Moreover, they are much worse than LGBT, these are dozens and hundreds of criminal cases. Although, it would seem, Jehovah's Witnesses have never been engaged in politics at all, just fundamentally, it is impossible for them. Could leave them alone. But no, no matter what happens, the war is already going on, and Jehovah's witnesses are driven with the same zeal.
It seems to me that in general, the campaign against LGBT fits into the idea of the struggle for "traditional values." And “traditional values”, it seems to me, is an important thing for the self -determination of our authorities. The Russian state positions itself as a “great power”, which fights with a civilizational enemy that is superior in power, that is, with the West. And why is it fighting? It fights for sovereignty, which is also a cultural nature in order to preserve these traditional values, which have for some time even have their own definition in the documents. But it is so wide that it is not clear why these values are our, they are more or less common everywhere.
But in fact, this concept itself implies the preservation of some non-powerful, non-liberal “especially”, which is an ideological banner. It is fiction to a large extent, but it does not matter. And our power in this picture protects “traditional values” not only within the boundaries of the Russian Federation, it protects them on a global scale, seeks to protect them in the West, collaborating with conservative movements operating there. This continues for years, and this is not a secret, but a completely open official strategy.
- Why could not become a “defender of family values” in the eyes of the world community and the internal audience not through the persecution of objectionable, but really supporting families, motherhood? Protecting them from poverty, stimulating the birth rate?
- If you really look at things, what could it turn inside? Of course, if we, as a great power, want to strengthen marriage as a marriage between a man and a woman, probably the first thing that might have occurred from positive actions, these are some social programs to support motherhood and large families. And they seem to exist, but they require money, much more money to be really effective. And money is such a thing that is a pity to spend. But you can fight LGBT almost free.
Facebook (* - Meta - an organization recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation)
From whom do we protect these values? From a terrible inner enemy. How scary is he? The fact that he is supported by the powerful external power of our strategic enemy. They themselves, LGBT, are not scary, but this support is scary. And they became part of the same "great civilizational struggle."
At the same time, almost no real actions can not be taken against LGBT. What in recent years the state has done this with LGBT people, after all? Closed several organizations. It almost did not apply this article about LGBT propaganda among minors, in fact, under this article, an insignificant amount of affairs. Even from the point of view of the use of a repressive apparatus, this is a very small sector and a small volume of consumed resources. More problems are created by homophobic activists, unbelievable against this background. And there is a lot of resonance.
From the point of view of presenting themselves to the people, and not only to his own, as a defender of the same traditionality of the campaign against LGBT, it is extremely effective if you compare costs and result. You can continue in the same spirit and further. Deprived of rolling certificates a dozen films. How much does it cost? Nothing. And how much will they write about this?
“But does this approach cause even more irritation with its meaninglessness?”
- Causes, but it is impossible not to cause any discontent at all. Of course, we will now see how the application of this new legislation will develop, but they will not exclude from the cultural sphere just all the works in which any homosexual subjects appear. That will not happen. I remember when the law was adopted that in public space there cannot exist texts that describe the use of drugs, everyone giggled: how will Sherlock Holmes smoke his opium? And he smoked and smokes. (In fact, Sherlock Holmes used a cocaine solution intravenously. - Republic .) No one sees books about Sherlock Holmes, because there was no such task at all. There was a task to show that we were fighting, and for this it was not necessary to remove Sherlock Holmes.
The ruling group in the past 10 years has been increasingly trying to present itself as ideologically motivated power. Not just like a pragmatic authoritarian regime that rules because he knows the best. But because there are some ideas that he is ready to protect, and citizens will support him and endure inconvenience. For this type of political regime, the presentation of the struggle is politically very useful. You adopt laws, use a little, all this is cheap and simple, there is terribly a lot of noise around, and you look like a serious ideological fighter, and what else is needed?
- All these people themselves do not believe in these traditional values, the president is divorced, some senators publicly abandon their children who do not support the war, deputies are often accused of harassment and a dissolving lifestyle. It turns out as with the idea of communism in the USSR, which could not but collapse?
- I do not know what they believe in, it does not matter. They create an image. And quite successfully, judging by how many Russia had partners in the West to fight for traditional values. In the West, all sorts of conservative movements are really fighting for something, and why would they not welcome such a partner from the East. But, of course, now Ukraine has crushed the number of partners quite strongly.
-Despite the fact that this struggle for values is a simulation, it still forms reality. Does the real hatred of LGBT lead?
- Of course, the real discrimination of LGBT exists. But it is not a goal as such, but a tool for creating a winning image, as well as a side effect of this activity.
- What, by the way, did Jehovah's witnesses guilty?
- There are different theories in this regard. It is clear that basic in the eyes of the authorities they are also “non-traditional”, moreover, they have a headquarters in New York. But many who have a headquarters in the West, and Jehovah's Witnesses also have an additional drawback, only inherent in them: they, due to religious views, try not to communicate with the state, they simply do not communicate with it if possible. And to our authorities, who try to control all subjects manually, this inspired significant suspicions.
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