I was wondering if anybody else had seen the Reggie Yates'documentary about Russian ultra-nationalists. While I don't condone that form of journalism as I find it unbalanced, sensationalist and simplistic (as if *everybody* in Russia is a racist and worships Putin), I would like to see it as a warning to other countries, when nationalism is allowed to get out of control as a mean for the government to subjugate the populace. Even though such warnings shouldn't be needed anymore since there already are horrifying examples of where nationalism can lead in history.
The documentary is visible here for UK-residents:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r844j
The West shouldn't think itself as superior or more civilized than Russians though: people in Europe and America still hold racist and prejudiced views but don't dare express them as freely as their comrades in Russia because, deep in their hearts, they are ashamed of holding such backward views and fearful of the consequences, legal and otherwise, if they let them known in public. They feel repressed by the politically correct and resent all the more having to tolerate people who are different from them or whom they perceive as 'stealing' their jobs.
Even the Russian Neonazis are starting to understand they can't keep on behaving like a bunch of degenerates for the whole world to see but they have to put a pretense, a flimsy facade of tolerance and allow the black reporter to interview them when in fact they're itching to beat him into a pulp.
You will always have racists, of any creed, of any race, in every country in the world: white racists, black racists, Asian racists and so on. We should be concerned when such ideas are allowed to be expressed and acted upon without being punished and to prosper for the benefit of the power in place or simply to be exploited by unsavoury people eyeing such power. As such, is it that surprising that Nigel Farage and other members of the Ukip party in the UK, are admirers of Vladimir Putin?
Reggie Yates' investigation of extreme movements in Russia is in three parts: the next one is looking at the repression of gay people. I will watch it and may (or may not) write my thoughts about it in this very blog.
Don't think you're immune to what plagues Russian society at the moment just because you live in the West. Don't think you are 'superior', more 'enlightened' and more 'civilized' than the rest of the world because you live in the West. Racism and the like haven't been eradicated and probably never will, even in the West and it doesn't take much for a so-called civilized society to sink into barbarism and cruelty when prejudices are just kept below the surface.
