Public figures in Russia are unable to express personal opinions. Instead, they are required to voice the views of their esteemed president, the respected government, and the political party they represent. Any personal assessments of the surrounding events can only be shared in private, typically in the evening, with a trusted individual, in the confines of a kitchen, with the windows and ventilation tightly shut.
Therefore, when Vladimir Karasev, a member of the Coordination Council of the Public Chamber of Russia and a political scientist who is constantly present on federal television channels, calls the head of Azerbaijan a «faggot», he is not expressing his own opinion — he is proclaiming from a high tribune what the Kremlin’s masters would be pleased to hear. Of course, the Kremlin would like to call, insult, and humiliate Ilham Aliyev themselves, but, following diplomatic protocols and minimal standards of decency, they courageously refrain from such statements. But other politicians — at the level of S. Markov, K. Zatulin or V. Karasev — never miss an opportunity to please the inhabitants of the Kremlin.
According to V. Putin’s logic, the South Caucasus and Central Asia (the so-called underbelly of the empire) are integral lands of Russia, belonging to it since ancient times. The fact that yesterday’s colonies in these territories have gained sovereignty and have become independent states is just some kind of unfortunate historical misunderstanding. However, the wise policy of the Russian leader will correct this situation. And even if this does not happen today, tomorrow or in the nearest future, everything must certainly return to normal. These cherished aspirations are shared by all Russian society — from V. Putin, who clearly imagines himself an emperor reviving Russia’s former greatness, to a modest worker at Uralvagonzavod.
Russians are quick to criticize the white population of North America for their treatment of African Americans, yet they themselves often refer to people from the Caucasus and Asia with derogatory terms like «Khacheks,» «Abreks,» and «churkas,» reducing them to second-class citizens, at best.
It is sufficient to recall that only yesterday, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili was branded an «impudent fool» by Dmitry Medvedev and described by Maria Zakharova as «a person without a mind and a heart.» Less known Russian politicians have been even more scathing in their remarks about her.
The empire’s main propagandist, Margarita Simonyan, has been tirelessly throwing mud at the Armenian authorities for the past six years (since Nikol Pashinyan came to power in Armenia in 2018), strangely hiding behind the fact that her ethnic origin supposedly gives her the moral right to constantly dunk her compatriots’ faces in a puddle.
It’s also worth noting that in 2022, Tigran Keosayan, the devoted husband of Margarita, and a film director and journalist, reprimanded Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev like a chastised child for failing to hold a military parade and mass ceremonial procession in Astana on Victory Day, May 9, for several consecutive years. Even though the authorities of Kazakhstan explained their decisions by the grave consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic (both in the health care and economic spheres), T. Keosayan, with undisguised delight, poured tons of stinking slops on the heads of the authorities and ordinary residents of Kazakhstan, accusing them of all conceivable and inconceivable sins.
In this case – when President I. Aliyev was deeply insulted – it should be understood that, unlike Armenia or Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan is incomparably less dependent on its political, energy and trade-economic relations with Russia. Therefore, there is no doubt that the Aliyev ruling house will seek retribution for the humiliation inflicted by V. Karasev (effectively V. Putin), for the shooting down of the Azerbaijani passenger airliner by Russian forces, and for the cruel and cynical command given by Russian operators of the already-hit plane to Kazakhstan, with the blatant expectation that it would soon crash into the Caspian Sea.
It is possible (and even most likely) that I. Aliyev will not respond to the Kremlin directly today or tomorrow, however, sooner or later, Baku’s non-public reaction to all the abominations perpetrated against Azerbaijan by Russia will certainly find its visible manifestation!