23-08-2010, 05:27 AM
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)
The political and social roots of Russia?s wildfire disaster
By Andrea Peters
21 August 2010
A cold wave hitting central Russia has finally provided relief to
millions of Moscow residents who have been living in suffocating heat
and smog for weeks. While the wildfires that turned the air in the
nation?s capital into a toxic haze have reportedly been brought under
control, numerous blazes continue to burn in other areas, in particular
Siberia and the Far East.
Earlier this week, the government reported that the number of hectares
in flames had fallen from 45,800 to 22,700. A wildfire threatening the
nuclear facility in the closed town of Sarov has been brought under
control. Blazes that consumed land polluted with radioactive fallout
during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster have also been contained, although
environmentalists have questioned the government?s claim that the
wildfires did not release radioactive smoke into the air.
Despite the improved situation, resource-strapped firefighters continue
to struggle to extinguish blazes in peat bogs that have been smoldering
for weeks. A fire in the Denezhkin Kamen Nature Preserve in the
Sverdlovsk region that had been reduced to a quarter of a hectare on
Tuesday has once again started to spread, threatening the region?s
unique species and ecosystem.
While officials acknowledge 54 deaths directly from the fires thus far,
the numbers who perished as a result of the pollution caused by the
fires are many times higher. On Tuesday, the BBC reported that,
according to Boris Revich, a researcher with the Russian Academy of
Sciences, 5,840 more people died in Moscow in July than during the same
time last year. Statistics for August, when some of the worst smog
blanketed the capital, are not yet available.
Over the past week news stories have begun to emerge about the
difficulties fire victims have encountered in receiving even the limited
compensation promised by the government. According to the business daily
Kommersant, those who lost property due to grass fires, as opposed to
forest fires, and those who were not able to legally register their
property beforehand?a common problem in Russia due to the complex
bureaucratic procedures associated with this process?are ineligible for
compensation. In addition, family members of individuals who died before
the government announced its special fund for fire victims cannot
receive any aid.
On August 17, RosBiznesKonsalting reported: ?In Zavadskii village in
Riazan oblast, Irina Iakovleva was refused compensation for her mother,
who died in a fire. At the government office in Sasovskii, they told her
that ?she died on July 26, but it has to be after the 28th.?
The wildfire disaster has brought to the fore, once again, the vast
chasm that exists between ordinary working people in Russia and all
sections of the state bureaucracy and the wealthy elite it serves. This
summer?s events will further fuel popular discontent over the rising
cost of living, limited economic and job prospects, the elimination of
public services, and deteriorating social conditions in Russia?s
industrial towns.
The scale of the fires, and the thousands of deaths they caused, are
bound up with the semi-privatization of Russia?s forests in the
interests of powerful logging and paper manufacturing corporations and
the near-total liquidation of the country?s 70,000-strong forestry
service. The collapse of infrastructure in poor rural areas meant that
villages burnt to the ground for lack of firefighting equipment, while
in some cases the summer homes of nearby wealthy residents were saved by
emergency services that were ordered to ignore the pleas of ordinary
people for help.
The indifference of the ruling elite to the conditions of life of masses
of people found graphic expression in the actions of Moscow Mayor Iuri
Luzhkov, who did not bother to interrupt his vacation in the Austrian
Alps as millions of his constituents choked on foul air. On Wednesday,
Luzhkov, who only returned to the capital on August 8, went back on holiday.
The Kremlin is nervous about the political consequences of the wildfire
disaster. It is also aware that lingering anger over this event will
only be exacerbated by soaring food prices in coming months, caused by a
30 percent fall in the country?s grain output due to drought.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have
attempted to head off rising popular anger over the wildfires through a
series of publicity stunts. Medvedev held a meeting with Russia?s
oligarchs to insist that they ?share? in the suffering by contributing
financially to rebuilding homes and compensating victims, while Putin
rode in the cockpit of a bomber dropping water on fires.
In a meeting with several of Russia?s wealthiest and most powerful
businessmen, Medvedev thanked oligarch Oleg Deripaska for his
willingness to extend his ?patronage? to some of Russia?s destroyed
villages. Deripaska, one of the most widely despised figures in the
country, is the owner of a vast industrial empire. Last year he was the
object of fierce popular protests in the town of Pikalevo, where
desperate residents blocked a federal highway in order to demand back
pay and the restoration of their jobs at factories recently closed down
by Deripaska and other industrial magnates.
The amount of aid promised to disaster victims, which has ranged in
different government statements from 200,000 to 2 million rubles (about
$7,000 to $66,000), is probably equivalent to what one of Russia?s
multi-billionaire businessmen spends on a casual afternoon of shopping.
The Kremlin?s efforts to make a show of demanding that this criminal
elite help the fire victims are at once absurd and grotesque.
Medevev, however, is concerned that the deep-seated hostility towards
these social layers could once again explode as people take stock of the
summer?s events. His demands that they help rebuild the country are
aimed at containing popular anger while providing a measure of cover for
the oligarchs.
An August 17 article published in RosBiznesKonsalting noted, ?Experts
agree that major businesses will come out winners all the same, even if
they are compelled now to raise money to carry out the president?s
wishes? The state is considering procurement of Deripaska?s interest in
Norilsk Nickel, a convenient moment for recommending him to build a
village or two in his native Nizhni Novgorod.?
The online news site went on to quote an expert who pointed out, ?The
matter concerns $8-9 billion, so that what Deripaska will spend on
reconstruction of a village looks like a pittance in comparison.?
While the Russian government has made various well-publicized promises
regarding the devotion of increased resources to forest maintenance and
the reflooding of peat bogs, the Kremlin remains impervious to popular
demands that the 2007 forest code that set the stage for the wildfire
disaster be reversed.
The lesson that the ruling elite is drawing from these events is that it
is necessary to further consolidate its grip on power in order to
prevent similar crises in the future from sparking a challenge to its
authority. In an August 11 article published in the government newspaper
Rossiskaia Gazeta and entitled ?Lessons of a Hot Summer,? Nikolai Zlobin
warns that the Russian state must consider the national security
implications of the wildfire disaster.
?Today [national security] threats frequently lie in spheres far removed
from the purely military. When such threats are unexpectedly exacerbated
the state and its citizens become vulnerable and defenseless and the
situation threatens to get out of control, to become unmanageable, and
to lead to destabilization, instability, and a decline in the
authorities? prestige.?
Russia?s liberal opposition has responded to the wildfire disaster by
denouncing the Kremlin, directing the bulk of its criticism to Putin, as
opposed to Medvedev, who it views as a potential political ally. In
particular, several leading newspapers have carried editorials insisting
that the slow response of local officials to the disaster and the
efforts of regional leaders to cover up the extent of the crisis in
their areas point to the failure of Putin?s ?power vertical,? whereby
regional governors are appointed by the Kremlin. Government corruption,
several have noted, contributed to the wildfire disaster, as money
intended for firefighting purposes was often used to purchase luxury
items for state bureaucrats.
The claim is made that if the people had the right to choose local
leaders, the officials would behave more responsibly. Remarking on the
fact that the governor of Vladimir oblast, Nikolai Vinogradov, was on
vacation while thousands of hectares of forestland in his region were
ablaze, the liberal daily Nezavisimaia Gazeta stated, ?Of course, if
regional heads were elected, they would hardly permit themselves such
liberties.?
The profoundly anti-democratic character of the Russian political system
no doubt contributed to the wildfire disaster and the suffering of the
population. However, this alone cannot explain why villages burnt to the
ground for want of firefighting equipment or the peat bogs in
surrounding Moscow were left unmonitored for fire danger.
The collapse of public services in Russia and the semi-privatization of
the country?s forests are part and parcel of the restoration of
capitalism, which the liberal opposition hails as a great historic
achievement. The 2007 forest code passed by the Kremlin is not simply a
product of Putin?s corrupt relationship with powerful logging and paper
manufacturing interests in Russia. It is entirely in keeping with the
political principles dictated by Russia?s market economy, in which the
profit motive, not social needs, determines how resources will be utilized.
The political and social roots of Russia?s wildfire disaster
By Andrea Peters
21 August 2010
A cold wave hitting central Russia has finally provided relief to
millions of Moscow residents who have been living in suffocating heat
and smog for weeks. While the wildfires that turned the air in the
nation?s capital into a toxic haze have reportedly been brought under
control, numerous blazes continue to burn in other areas, in particular
Siberia and the Far East.
Earlier this week, the government reported that the number of hectares
in flames had fallen from 45,800 to 22,700. A wildfire threatening the
nuclear facility in the closed town of Sarov has been brought under
control. Blazes that consumed land polluted with radioactive fallout
during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster have also been contained, although
environmentalists have questioned the government?s claim that the
wildfires did not release radioactive smoke into the air.
Despite the improved situation, resource-strapped firefighters continue
to struggle to extinguish blazes in peat bogs that have been smoldering
for weeks. A fire in the Denezhkin Kamen Nature Preserve in the
Sverdlovsk region that had been reduced to a quarter of a hectare on
Tuesday has once again started to spread, threatening the region?s
unique species and ecosystem.
While officials acknowledge 54 deaths directly from the fires thus far,
the numbers who perished as a result of the pollution caused by the
fires are many times higher. On Tuesday, the BBC reported that,
according to Boris Revich, a researcher with the Russian Academy of
Sciences, 5,840 more people died in Moscow in July than during the same
time last year. Statistics for August, when some of the worst smog
blanketed the capital, are not yet available.
Over the past week news stories have begun to emerge about the
difficulties fire victims have encountered in receiving even the limited
compensation promised by the government. According to the business daily
Kommersant, those who lost property due to grass fires, as opposed to
forest fires, and those who were not able to legally register their
property beforehand?a common problem in Russia due to the complex
bureaucratic procedures associated with this process?are ineligible for
compensation. In addition, family members of individuals who died before
the government announced its special fund for fire victims cannot
receive any aid.
On August 17, RosBiznesKonsalting reported: ?In Zavadskii village in
Riazan oblast, Irina Iakovleva was refused compensation for her mother,
who died in a fire. At the government office in Sasovskii, they told her
that ?she died on July 26, but it has to be after the 28th.?
The wildfire disaster has brought to the fore, once again, the vast
chasm that exists between ordinary working people in Russia and all
sections of the state bureaucracy and the wealthy elite it serves. This
summer?s events will further fuel popular discontent over the rising
cost of living, limited economic and job prospects, the elimination of
public services, and deteriorating social conditions in Russia?s
industrial towns.
The scale of the fires, and the thousands of deaths they caused, are
bound up with the semi-privatization of Russia?s forests in the
interests of powerful logging and paper manufacturing corporations and
the near-total liquidation of the country?s 70,000-strong forestry
service. The collapse of infrastructure in poor rural areas meant that
villages burnt to the ground for lack of firefighting equipment, while
in some cases the summer homes of nearby wealthy residents were saved by
emergency services that were ordered to ignore the pleas of ordinary
people for help.
The indifference of the ruling elite to the conditions of life of masses
of people found graphic expression in the actions of Moscow Mayor Iuri
Luzhkov, who did not bother to interrupt his vacation in the Austrian
Alps as millions of his constituents choked on foul air. On Wednesday,
Luzhkov, who only returned to the capital on August 8, went back on holiday.
The Kremlin is nervous about the political consequences of the wildfire
disaster. It is also aware that lingering anger over this event will
only be exacerbated by soaring food prices in coming months, caused by a
30 percent fall in the country?s grain output due to drought.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have
attempted to head off rising popular anger over the wildfires through a
series of publicity stunts. Medvedev held a meeting with Russia?s
oligarchs to insist that they ?share? in the suffering by contributing
financially to rebuilding homes and compensating victims, while Putin
rode in the cockpit of a bomber dropping water on fires.
In a meeting with several of Russia?s wealthiest and most powerful
businessmen, Medvedev thanked oligarch Oleg Deripaska for his
willingness to extend his ?patronage? to some of Russia?s destroyed
villages. Deripaska, one of the most widely despised figures in the
country, is the owner of a vast industrial empire. Last year he was the
object of fierce popular protests in the town of Pikalevo, where
desperate residents blocked a federal highway in order to demand back
pay and the restoration of their jobs at factories recently closed down
by Deripaska and other industrial magnates.
The amount of aid promised to disaster victims, which has ranged in
different government statements from 200,000 to 2 million rubles (about
$7,000 to $66,000), is probably equivalent to what one of Russia?s
multi-billionaire businessmen spends on a casual afternoon of shopping.
The Kremlin?s efforts to make a show of demanding that this criminal
elite help the fire victims are at once absurd and grotesque.
Medevev, however, is concerned that the deep-seated hostility towards
these social layers could once again explode as people take stock of the
summer?s events. His demands that they help rebuild the country are
aimed at containing popular anger while providing a measure of cover for
the oligarchs.
An August 17 article published in RosBiznesKonsalting noted, ?Experts
agree that major businesses will come out winners all the same, even if
they are compelled now to raise money to carry out the president?s
wishes? The state is considering procurement of Deripaska?s interest in
Norilsk Nickel, a convenient moment for recommending him to build a
village or two in his native Nizhni Novgorod.?
The online news site went on to quote an expert who pointed out, ?The
matter concerns $8-9 billion, so that what Deripaska will spend on
reconstruction of a village looks like a pittance in comparison.?
While the Russian government has made various well-publicized promises
regarding the devotion of increased resources to forest maintenance and
the reflooding of peat bogs, the Kremlin remains impervious to popular
demands that the 2007 forest code that set the stage for the wildfire
disaster be reversed.
The lesson that the ruling elite is drawing from these events is that it
is necessary to further consolidate its grip on power in order to
prevent similar crises in the future from sparking a challenge to its
authority. In an August 11 article published in the government newspaper
Rossiskaia Gazeta and entitled ?Lessons of a Hot Summer,? Nikolai Zlobin
warns that the Russian state must consider the national security
implications of the wildfire disaster.
?Today [national security] threats frequently lie in spheres far removed
from the purely military. When such threats are unexpectedly exacerbated
the state and its citizens become vulnerable and defenseless and the
situation threatens to get out of control, to become unmanageable, and
to lead to destabilization, instability, and a decline in the
authorities? prestige.?
Russia?s liberal opposition has responded to the wildfire disaster by
denouncing the Kremlin, directing the bulk of its criticism to Putin, as
opposed to Medvedev, who it views as a potential political ally. In
particular, several leading newspapers have carried editorials insisting
that the slow response of local officials to the disaster and the
efforts of regional leaders to cover up the extent of the crisis in
their areas point to the failure of Putin?s ?power vertical,? whereby
regional governors are appointed by the Kremlin. Government corruption,
several have noted, contributed to the wildfire disaster, as money
intended for firefighting purposes was often used to purchase luxury
items for state bureaucrats.
The claim is made that if the people had the right to choose local
leaders, the officials would behave more responsibly. Remarking on the
fact that the governor of Vladimir oblast, Nikolai Vinogradov, was on
vacation while thousands of hectares of forestland in his region were
ablaze, the liberal daily Nezavisimaia Gazeta stated, ?Of course, if
regional heads were elected, they would hardly permit themselves such
liberties.?
The profoundly anti-democratic character of the Russian political system
no doubt contributed to the wildfire disaster and the suffering of the
population. However, this alone cannot explain why villages burnt to the
ground for want of firefighting equipment or the peat bogs in
surrounding Moscow were left unmonitored for fire danger.
The collapse of public services in Russia and the semi-privatization of
the country?s forests are part and parcel of the restoration of
capitalism, which the liberal opposition hails as a great historic
achievement. The 2007 forest code passed by the Kremlin is not simply a
product of Putin?s corrupt relationship with powerful logging and paper
manufacturing interests in Russia. It is entirely in keeping with the
political principles dictated by Russia?s market economy, in which the
profit motive, not social needs, determines how resources will be utilized.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.