Presidential race ---- Last week, the participants in the so-called"presidential elections" in Russia were determined. Putin will beassisted by three faceless extras, and so far everything is goingaccording to the scenario of Egypt and Azerbaijan, where local dictatorsrecently reappointed themselves in the same way through the supposedexpression of the people's will. ---- But at the stage of candidateregistration, interesting events took place. Out of nowhere, a certainunknown Ekaterina Duntsova appears . A pleasant, relatable young womanwho says she wants to end the war with Ukraine. A real all-Russianmovement is immediately being built around it. The Central ElectionCommission quickly removes her from the race.Boris Nadezhdin, an old functionary of the "Union of Right Forces" andthen of many other parties, declares his intention to register as acandidate . He won serious elections to the State Duma only once, in1999. Then he had a series of failed election campaigns under differentflags, and his next electoral success was in 2021, excuse me, in theelections in the Moscow region town of Dolgoprudny.Nadezhdin also went to propaganda shows on Russian TV, where he tried toconvey the liberal point of view amid the shouts and insults ofSolovyov's regulars. Nadezhdin also had various political technologyprojects. Apparently successful. The author of the text saw Nadezhdinonce in his life, in the mid-2010s: he was in a Porsche Cayenne with apersonal driver.Nadezhdin also began to advocate for the anti-war agenda, and instantlycollected more than 200 thousand signatures for his registration. Theauthorities again tensed up and removed him from the elections.Neither Duntsova nor Nadezhdin - despite massive support - have calledfor any real confrontation with the authorities; they are broadcastingsome nonsense about appealing the registration procedure in the courts,creating a party, and focusing on elections to the Moscow City Duma.What are the conclusions from this story? Even despite laws thatseverely punish any protest against the war, and opinion polls , thecases of Duntsova and Nadezhdin show that people are not afraid to saythat they want peace with Ukraine, that they are not satisfied with thebacchanalia going on in Russia.At the same time, people are not ready for tough confrontation andconsistent struggle. There remains faith in election procedures, in thefact that one can sign for an "anti-war candidate," and supposedly thisis already a lot. Based on this, it seems that we need to build work inRussia: understand that there are a lot of people who disagree with theregime, but the situation is not yet ripe for a real strong protest.About the elections themselves. As anarchists, we are generally veryskeptical about the mechanisms of representative democracy. And such aposition as the President of the Russian Federation, which concentratespower over a country of 140 million in its hands, is far from any kindof democracy. Back in 2018, during the last elections, "AutonomousAction" spoke about the need to abolish the post of president as such .And life showed the correctness of this idea. Any power corrupts. Andwhen in the hands of one person such an insane amount of power as Putinhas, then such incredible madness as, for example, a war with Ukrainebecomes possible.Four months of another warLast week marked four months of Israel's war with the Gaza Strip. Itseems that it is beginning to end, but there is no way to jinx it, thesituation can still turn out any way.Reading about the international reaction to this war, one notices animportant mistake that many left-wing activists make in arguing that theIsraeli-Palestinian relationship is identical to the practice of whitecolonialism.The obvious mistake is that Jews are so-so white Europeans. For the mostpart, Jews are, excuse me, not blonds from St. Petersburg or London. Ahuge part of the Israeli population are very dark-skinned people fromEthiopia, Morocco, Yemen, and Iraq. You probably haven't noticed:Whatsapp allows you to add emoticons with different skin tones. AndIsraelis often choose dark brown emojis.It should also not be forgotten that of the seven million Arabs in thecountry, two million - as a result of all sorts of confusing events inIsrael's 76-year history - have Israeli citizenship. And thePalestinians, another five million, are essentially Arabs who have nocitizenship. During the four months of the war in Gaza, two millionArabs with Israeli citizenship did not express any sympathy for theactions of Hamas.The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is much less a story of colonialism,but something like the Armenian-Azerbaijani or Georgian-Abkhazianconflicts. Where both sides brought each other a lot of grief, killedand oppressed each other. It's just that the Israeli side is moresuccessful so far.But this is also changing: Israel is very dependent on the support ofthe United States and the European Union. And there, immigrants fromArab countries are becoming more and more successful; they are graduallyfinding themselves in responsible government positions. ManyPalestinians have American citizenship.Every killing of a Palestinian with an American passport by the Israelimilitary or settlers in the West Bank is a serious diplomatic scandal.Also, the United States and the European Union are increasinglycooperating with the Arab oil monarchies of the Persian Gulf. Pressureon Israel from the United States and the European Union is growing andwill continue to grow .In Israel, of course, there is a depressingly huge amount of hatredtowards Arabs . The strange confidence of many residents is that thewhole world owes them hundreds of years in debt for the horrors of theHolocaust, and inside Israel you can do whatever you want with Arabswithout citizenship... Interestingly, any oppression of Arabs withIsraeli citizenship in Israel will be punished in the same way as forcrimes against Jews.Both the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the Israeli war with theGaza Strip show that empathy either exists or it does not exist at all.It's disgusting when people worry about Russia's bombing of Ukraine butignore the deaths of women and children in Gaza. Or he worries aboutGaza, but ignores the massacre carried out by Hamas. Or ignores thedeaths of civilians in Donetsk.There is no right or wrong side to history. And yes, no great idea - theborders of Ukraine in 1991, a free Palestine from sea to river, ahistorical state of Jews, the protection of the Russian-speakingpopulation in Ukraine - all these wonderful ideas are not worth a singletear of a single child.Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order andChaos, members of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchistassessments of current events. Listen to us on YouTube , SoundCloudand other platforms, visit our website avtonom.org , subscribe to oure-mail newsletter!Issue prepared by Listyevhttps://avtonom.org/news/pravilnaya-storona-istorii-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-144_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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