A Ticking Time Bomb in Putin's Russia

Filed under: Russia

My latest installment on Pajamas Media reports startling new facts regarding a ticking time bomb in Russia: a shrinking non-Slavic population combined with rising xenophobia and racism. Click through to check out the details on this horrific crisis in the making, and feel free to leave your comments as to how the West can best respond.

In January, Prague Watchdog reported that in Chechnya, a region of just 1.1 million people, the Russian government itself admits that 400,000 are unemployed. PW states that in fact "only every fifth Chechen is in work" and observes: "In order to feed their families, most of the male population have to engage in types of work they have never done before. A former university professor works as a taxi driver, while a teacher of Russian language and literature repairs cars at home." PW continues:

This was the subject of an open letter published in the republic's Vesti newspaper by a group of Chechen scholars and public figures last autumn. They warned the authorities of the dangers of ignoring the problem. "The events of 1991 which led to a change of government in the republic, and ultimately to the outbreak of the first Chechen war, were above all supported by Chechens who were dissatisfied with their standard of living. If the same thing happens now, the consequences for the Chechen people will be catastrophic," the authors of the letter considered.

Think Putin's Kremlin is listening? Think again. PW reports: "The Chechen Department of Employment recently appealed to its colleagues in Krasnodarsky Krai to provide jobs for Chechen construction workers at construction sites in the city of Sochi, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2014. From Krasnodar came the reply that no such vacancies exist."

Russia tells the world it has to butt out of Chechnya because it's "part of Russia," yet because of racism Russians don't see Chechens as equal citizens and won't treat them that way.

The result is that Russia is becoming a boiling cauldron of racial injustice, and there is no Martin Luther King figure to help the oppressed people blow off steam. As such, the pressure can only build until it explodes. Putin's policies have utterly failed. Violence still occurs, the economy is destroyed so resentment builds, and his nationalistic fervor fans the flames of racism.

It's a disaster in the making for Russia.

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