Spare Organs
By Sean at 21 January, 2007, 5:28 pm
Despite the sharp differences and disagreements Kim Zigfield and I have had over Russia and its nature, I have to give credit where credit is due. I highly recommend reading La Russophobe’s translation of Igor Korolkov’s article “Spare Organs” published in Novaya Gazeta. The original Russian version can be found here.
It’s a chilling tale of the impact of quasi-autonomous police organs that carry out extra-judicial reprisals grew out of the chaos of the 1990s. Now it seems that these “organs” are beyond control and even containment. Originally created in the early in mid-1990s to protect “state security,” these “gangs,” as Korolkov calls them, could literally embody blowback against the very state, law, and security, and order they were supposedly to “secure.” One leaves this article wondering what role these extra-judicial organizations area already playing in Russia in regard to the 2008 Presidential election.
Heavy stuff indeed.
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Comments
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I’m sorry, why are you taking delirious ravings of a lunatic so seriously? Are you that credulous?
A dead giveaway from the start was the “Aquarium” book. Do you know who wrote it and what it is about?
Well I certainly don’t need to justify any post on my blog to you or anyone. I thought the article was interesting and worth a read.
And no I don’t know about the “Aquarium” book. Enlighten me.
You don’t need to do anything, but I think I have the right to express my surprise at your credulity, don’t I? If you thought it was “interesting and worth a read”, it’s one thing. But when you start believing it, well… I’m puzzled.
“Aquarium” is a fictional account of a GRU officer’s defection, written by a real GRU defector. The only thing that can possibly be interpreted as something the book could teach was how GRU recruited foreign citizens for the purposes of industrial espionage. The idea that real GRU officers would treat this book seriously is preposterous.
Here, knock yourself out: http://www.lib.ru/WSUWOROW/akwarium.txt
I guess one should not wonder that it is Novaya Gazeta, which published the article.
One wonders – if David Duke wrote an article about African-American crime rates in the US … would they also deserve to be referenced or lauded? He recently was in Iran representing the US for that Holocaust denial conference. Does that mean his opinions should be taken as legitimate – because he is given a forum?
I think by endorsing, even in passing, a forum for bigotry and blind hatred … in an attempt to give credit or be “fair” … you create the impression that hatred and bigotry are morally equivalent to like or admiration. Both points of view will color writing and research, but they are far from being considered morally equivalent.