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MOSCOW IS NOT A SEXUAL DISNEYLAND
Moscow News
November 10, 2011 Thursday
Nicole, a Moscow State Linguistics University journalism student,
showed up for dinner Sunday night, a bundle of energy, ready to
interview me for her thesis. I was more interested in what she had
to say, so I asked if anyone had approached her on the 10 minute walk
from Kievskaya metro station to the Georgian restaurant.
Although bundled up like a winter fur ball -- coat, hat, scarf,
mittens, boots -- Nicole said she walked the usual gauntlet of leers
and sexual invitations from young men from the Caucasus who hang
around the metro exits. In fact, she said, it has become so common
that she had not even thought about it, until I asked her specifically.
I had been pondering something very strange that I noticed Friday at
the rally in Moscow of 7,000 Russian nationalists. There was a total
absence of signs denouncing the United States or NATO.
Instead, the nationalists were entirely focused inward, largely on
the Caucasus.
'Stop feeding the Caucasus,' seemed to be the most a popular slogan,
objecting to the billions of dollars funneled south to pacify Russia's
heavily Muslim southern border region. Another was: 'Stop stealing
from Russian regions.' If you want to draw a nationalist crowd in
Moscow this season, don't waste your energy hyperventilating about
Kosovo, missile defense, or even Georgia. Instead, appeal to the
sexual politics of the city's streets.
Margarita Simonyan, a Russian journalist of Armenian descent, is
editor-in-chief of RT, the Kremlinsupported television channel formerly
known as Russia Today. Shielded by these impeccable establishment
credentials, she broke a mainstream media taboo last week, by writing
an essay that was first aired on Dozhd TV. Under the headline, 'Why We
Hate Each Other,' she wrote: 'Last weekend, I happened to be at the
Kazansky Station where I witnessed a disgusting scene: Three young
men from the Caucasus were taunting female train conductors standing
on the platform. 'Hey babes, are all women in Moscow as beautiful
as you are?' they jeered. Then they joined hands and began yelling,
'We are from the Caucasus!"
Russians love the phrase double standard - 'dvoinoi standart.' For
decades, it has been directed outward, to the West.
But now, more and more Russians are directing the double standard
critique inward, to their heavily Muslim South.
They object to the fact that some young men come from the Caucasus
to Moscow under the impression that they have just won a ticket to
a sexual Disneyland. If you just proposition 10, 20 or 50 girls on
the street, the thinking goes, eventually, you will get lucky.
Earlier this year, I was down in Chechnya and its sister republic
Ingushetia on reporting trips. Chechnya now lives under virtual
Sharia law. Last week, a Reuters friend reported from Chechnya that
security men are invading beauty salons and tearing down pictures
of women modeling hairstyles. Apparently hair dressers can no longer
display photos of hair styles. It sounds like Monty Python, but that
is Grozny today.
Ms. Simonyan is a well-traveled, multi-lingual, 31-year-old executive,
whose family roots go back to the southern Caucasus. She blames
the problem on parents sending the wrong signals to their sons:
'Why do some from the Caucasus behave this way in Moscow? Do they
behave in the same way in their native regions? Of course not. They
respect their countrymen. But they have no respect for Muscovites --
or Russians in general. If those young men at the Moscow train station
had dared to taunt 'their own' in such a crude manner in the Caucasus,
somebody certainly would have broken their jaws.'
Next month, my three sons, all American university students, will visit
Moscow for the holidays with two college buddies. I will explain to
all five, very clearly, in plain English, that their health insurance
policies do not, in any way, cover the consequences of harassing
girls on the streets of Moscow.
James Brooke (Twitter: @VOA_ Moscow) is the Moscow bureau chief for
Voice of America. To view all 'Russia Watch' posts, go to voanews.com
The views expressed in this article are the author's own, and not
necessarily those of The Moscow News.
From: Baghdasarian
Moscow News
November 10, 2011 Thursday
Nicole, a Moscow State Linguistics University journalism student,
showed up for dinner Sunday night, a bundle of energy, ready to
interview me for her thesis. I was more interested in what she had
to say, so I asked if anyone had approached her on the 10 minute walk
from Kievskaya metro station to the Georgian restaurant.
Although bundled up like a winter fur ball -- coat, hat, scarf,
mittens, boots -- Nicole said she walked the usual gauntlet of leers
and sexual invitations from young men from the Caucasus who hang
around the metro exits. In fact, she said, it has become so common
that she had not even thought about it, until I asked her specifically.
I had been pondering something very strange that I noticed Friday at
the rally in Moscow of 7,000 Russian nationalists. There was a total
absence of signs denouncing the United States or NATO.
Instead, the nationalists were entirely focused inward, largely on
the Caucasus.
'Stop feeding the Caucasus,' seemed to be the most a popular slogan,
objecting to the billions of dollars funneled south to pacify Russia's
heavily Muslim southern border region. Another was: 'Stop stealing
from Russian regions.' If you want to draw a nationalist crowd in
Moscow this season, don't waste your energy hyperventilating about
Kosovo, missile defense, or even Georgia. Instead, appeal to the
sexual politics of the city's streets.
Margarita Simonyan, a Russian journalist of Armenian descent, is
editor-in-chief of RT, the Kremlinsupported television channel formerly
known as Russia Today. Shielded by these impeccable establishment
credentials, she broke a mainstream media taboo last week, by writing
an essay that was first aired on Dozhd TV. Under the headline, 'Why We
Hate Each Other,' she wrote: 'Last weekend, I happened to be at the
Kazansky Station where I witnessed a disgusting scene: Three young
men from the Caucasus were taunting female train conductors standing
on the platform. 'Hey babes, are all women in Moscow as beautiful
as you are?' they jeered. Then they joined hands and began yelling,
'We are from the Caucasus!"
Russians love the phrase double standard - 'dvoinoi standart.' For
decades, it has been directed outward, to the West.
But now, more and more Russians are directing the double standard
critique inward, to their heavily Muslim South.
They object to the fact that some young men come from the Caucasus
to Moscow under the impression that they have just won a ticket to
a sexual Disneyland. If you just proposition 10, 20 or 50 girls on
the street, the thinking goes, eventually, you will get lucky.
Earlier this year, I was down in Chechnya and its sister republic
Ingushetia on reporting trips. Chechnya now lives under virtual
Sharia law. Last week, a Reuters friend reported from Chechnya that
security men are invading beauty salons and tearing down pictures
of women modeling hairstyles. Apparently hair dressers can no longer
display photos of hair styles. It sounds like Monty Python, but that
is Grozny today.
Ms. Simonyan is a well-traveled, multi-lingual, 31-year-old executive,
whose family roots go back to the southern Caucasus. She blames
the problem on parents sending the wrong signals to their sons:
'Why do some from the Caucasus behave this way in Moscow? Do they
behave in the same way in their native regions? Of course not. They
respect their countrymen. But they have no respect for Muscovites --
or Russians in general. If those young men at the Moscow train station
had dared to taunt 'their own' in such a crude manner in the Caucasus,
somebody certainly would have broken their jaws.'
Next month, my three sons, all American university students, will visit
Moscow for the holidays with two college buddies. I will explain to
all five, very clearly, in plain English, that their health insurance
policies do not, in any way, cover the consequences of harassing
girls on the streets of Moscow.
James Brooke (Twitter: @VOA_ Moscow) is the Moscow bureau chief for
Voice of America. To view all 'Russia Watch' posts, go to voanews.com
The views expressed in this article are the author's own, and not
necessarily those of The Moscow News.
From: Baghdasarian