Sputnik i Pogrom (SiP), the premier online resource of the Russian nationalists has just been blocked by Roskomnadzor.
It was done on the request of the General Prosecutor, along with five other nationalist sites. They claim to have found evidence of them “justifying” Right Sector, the Islamic State, Al-Nusra, and other terrorist groups, fighting in Syria. Formulaic reminder about how the Islamic State is banned on the territory of the Russian Federation, in case anyone forgot. The resources in question “propagandize the ideas of national and religious discord, which constitute a threat to social peace and incite extremism.”
Apart from the inherent absurdity of implying Russian nationalists have sympathies for Islamists – an absurdity that any honest person can recognize regardless of ideological orientation – the more telling characteristic is no particular offending material was identified. This means “correcting” a sentence or even removing an article or two doesn’t appear to be an option. SiP’s editors seem to have recognized this, and are mulling switching domain names and directing readers to guides on how to install VPN. (Though the Russian government is working on banning VPN too).
As a reminder, SiP isn’t some fringe Neo-Nazi blog bedecked in swastikas and dug up from the bowels of the Internet. It is a glossy magazine with long, high-quality articles about Russian history that now garners 1.5 million monthly visits, despite many of its articles being paywalled. It has been remarkably successful at penetrating its way into the Russian elites: Alexander Voloshin, Igor Strelkov, and Ksenia Sobchak (!) are known to be readers. Combining the visitor numbers of the top Alt Right websites with the intellectual sophistication and elite influence of the upper-tier neoreactionary blogs, SiP’s success as a media phenomenon cannot be denied. As the ultimate “compliment,” many of the large federal MSM organizations have already written about the pogrom of Sputnik i Pogrom.
It is highly critical of the Putin regime for what they see as its corruption, privileging of ethnic minorities, open borders with Central Asia, laxness in Ukraine, and the stiffling climate of political authoritarianism and social conservatism. One can agree or disagree with these assertions to varying extents, but one cannot credibly accuse it of being an agent for Western (or Islamist) interests; in 2014, they actively supported Crimea’s incorporation into Russia and the Donbass resistance, contributing 60 million rubles for humanitarian needs, sending volunteers, and crowdfunding an APC for the people’s militias.
Nor could SiP have been banned for its relative social and political liberalism, such as their criticism of organized religion and homophobia. The website of the Russian Imperial Movement, which whom I became acquainted in Saint-Petersburg, has also been blocked, even though they are hardline social conservatives and require applications for membership to be Orthodox Christians.
In totality, all this points to one conclusion: The Russian government has increasingly had it with Russian nationalism.
To be sure, the General Prosecutor balked at stating that directly, but the very lameness and lack of specifics of its accusations indicates that this is indeed the case. (More than half of Russians agree with the implicitly ethnonationalist slogan “Russia for Russians,” so perhaps that was a wise decision on their part).
What are the consequences and implications?
From a political perspective, the Russian elections are coming up in March 2018, and the authorities might have decided that oppositionist nationalism is not a media factor they want in play. This might imply that Navalny will be allowed to run after all (even though SiP has in truth been opposed to Navalny as much as Putin).
Another predictable theory that rears its head at times like these is that a “Putinsliv” (betrayal) is being planned for the LDNR, so the screws are being tightened in preparation for that – needless to say, a capitulation there will infuriate oppositionist nationalists more than any other group. This is very highly unlikely. Russia is coming out out of recession, so concerns about the economic impact of Western sanctions should be at a relative minimum. Besides, this is not the first time that SiP has been subjected to state harassment; its chief editor Egor Prosvirnin had his apartment searched and electronic devices confiscated back in September 2015.
Finally, it would be amiss to end this without a brief discussion of this event in the current political and sociological context.
First, there is a rich irony in that just a few weeks ago, Egor Prosvirnin was disinvited from the Saint-Petersburg “Geek Picnic” tech conference thanks to the no-platforming efforts of SJWs of “multinational nationality” such as Mikhail Gelfand, Boris Stern, David Homak, and Asya Kazantseva. Their logic being that Prosvirnin is a Kremlin attack dog and an imperialist Russian chauvinist (all these terms are interchangeable to them). The rather more banal reality is that Russian nationalists are squeezed between globalist “ZOG” and the “Putletreich” that loathes them in almost equal measure.
Second, it is just beautiful that SiP is now banned not just in “brotherly” Belarus, but in Russia as well, but not yet in “Banderite” Ukraine. Needless to say, this has nothing to do with any particularly Ukrainian respect for free speech. It is just that Ukraine is the least competent of these three Russophobic states. It’s still funny, though.
Prosvirnin is an absurd person, but not infrequently they published things worth reading, so I will be sorry to see them go, if the death sentence does prove fatal.
Political authoritarianism and social conservatism are good things, not bad things, and if they had recognised that, they might (but probably not) have had more freedom to preach their valuable anti-Muslim and anti-svidomite message.
Spare us the vitriol, please. These Russian (((nationalists))) are funded by the same globalist scumbags who fund ISIS and radical Islam. I’d be surprised if Prosvirnin and co. didn’t have sympathies for Islamists.
AK: Vitriol? Doctor, heal thyself.
If most of russians are really commited for a “Russia for (ethnic) Russians”, the crackdown of open fancy nationalist websites and groups shouldn’t faze much your average citizen who can practice his preference for all things cultural and national with people close to him/her and extend that as much under the radar as possible, plain grassroots movement.
If some russian ethnonationalists are really smart and commited to the cause (and weren’t yet jailed), they should instead find ways to disseminate their ways through that. Even the russian governmental and MSM machine aren’t as efficiently watchful and manipulative as the american one to hunt down and dissuade people, besides the historical experience of your average russian with neighboring foreigners has taught them more than americans are being taught now.
In fact, even Putin patriotic talks and his lawyer’s tactics in uniting all ethnicities in Russia on a sole russian people isn’t a bad idea and could be used in the right way to actually reinforce the need of russians and minorities to fight together for the same land in their separate ways. After all, with exception of the Caucasus republics, none of the others have the sincere will or the ways to get independent or out of the russian sphere (how can they be truly independent while landlocked?).
They aren’t as achieving as russians themselves even now with Tatars’ and Yakuts’ better conditions nowadays (in fact they are much more economically and even culturally dependent than the others). Both sitting on an industrial and oil/diamond prospect regions while sporting some cultural revival doesn’t mean that much in the whole context, unless only to scare the “pretending-to-be-kind” russian government to make concessions and try to look democratically good on global (western) eyes. In that case, one can understand why Soros’s ‘russian balkanization’ may not be that far of a fantasy. I may be wrong, but these republics aren’t that different from the old guberniyas, it was all just a matter of offering a ‘false authonomy’ to the tsarist ethnic subjects while brandishing the sword to remind who’s the real ruler. In that case, Putin just needed to show a more nonsense authoritarian approach to those republics and exempt ethnic russians to forcefully learn the ethnic languages (although at the same time he should encourage those russians who want to live there to learn just to be aware of their surroundings).
Surely you’re exaggerating? I’m not sure what ‘agree with’ would mean in this context, but your own link shows that only 14% support the ethnonationalist slogan; the other 38% come short of supporting: ‘not a bad idea, within reasonable limits’.
Am I the only one noticing the word “pogrom” ? I don’t think one has to be an expert on Russian politics to see that the jewish oligarchs would have had some involvement with this.
‘You don’t know how lucky you are boy…back in the U.S., back in the U.S., back in the U.S.S.R!’
Welcome back to Russia, Anatoly. Last month it was closing down a measeley Ukrainian library in Moscow, today it’s 5-6 nationalist journals. What’s next? You might consider moving to ‘Banderstan’, where even due to their ‘incompetence’ things are a bit freer. After 10 years, Jim Kovpak recently moved from Moscow to Kyiv, and doesn’t seem to be looking back. 🙂
The Russian Imperial Movement (which I mention here) are social conservatives who only accept Orthodox Christians, and their site http://rusimperia-inf.ru/ got blocked all the same.
Well, strictly speaking, I also literally agree that “Russia for Russians” is “not a bad idea, within reasonable limits.”
The point is that a significant double-digit percentage of Russians are extremists going by the government’s current standards (including Zhirinovsky and at least one member of the Communist Party).
In this case probably not.
Although the name is controversial, SiP is not anti-Semitic. It is more in line with the hip yuppie European nationalists like Geert Wilders who see Israel as a role model more than anything else, and who otherwise don’t have very strong feelings on Jews one way or the other.
As a Russian, I find it disgusting that our government thinks they can regulate what the people should think and believe – stupid Sovok scum.
I think they mean Pogrom in its literal sense, a confused mess. So Sputnik i Pogrom is contrasting the achievement of launching a Sputnik with the mess left behind on the ground. Russia is a place of extremes.
I was a subscriber at one time. As far as I could tell (not much), the quality of the Russian was good. They are staunch admirers of old fashioned British cultural values. So not all bad. 🙂
I am surprised that they have been shut down for rather bland reasons. They are not systematically antisemitic but occasionally fly that flag. The Unz Review comments section is far worse. I would have expected them to be closed for that reason.
All due respect to Mr Zhirinovsky, but I, not being familiar with this publication, read this piece this morning, and it certainly does sound extremist.
It also sounds stupid. I listened (on youtube) to some Russian ethnonationalists before, and they at least try to present a coherent point of view. The one I really like is Mikhail Remizov, but perhaps he’s not enough ‘ethno’ for you. The Pogrom guy, on the other hand, he sounds like he simply hates the Russian elites – simply because he’s not one of them. Chekists and Jews – what the fuck is that all about? Usmanov shouldn’t have money because he is Uzbek? Jeez. That’s just gibberish.
As for banning this stuff, frankly, I see a very good reason. RF is a multi-ethnic society, and if this sort of thing gets anywhere near mainstream, the country will break into small pieces in no time. Who needs that?
Are you serious? Russians are 80% of the population. If Israel can be a Jewish state (75%) without “breaking into small pieces” then certainly Russia can be.
If Ukraine needs to be broken up into smaller pieces, why not Russia? Why the the double standards and implied hypocrisy?
Well, if Ukraine needs to be carved up into smaller parts, why not Russia? Why the double standard and implied hypocrisy? BTW, today Trump tells Russia to:
Looks like Trump will not be Putin’s unwitting accomplice with regards to his hybrid war in Ukraine. All of Russia’s clandestine cyber meddling in U.S. elections all for naught?
Trump is saying different things to different people: he told Lavrov he doesn’t really care about the Ukraine. The true effect of Trump presidency so far has been to make America (and “the free world”) leaderless – that’s not at all bad from Russian perspective.
Israel is not a country, it’s a settler-colonial entity. And it wouldn’t survive for a week without its sponsors.
80% are self-identified Russians. But it’s not obvious that all of them will satisfy Pogrom. Mr Usmanov, for example, might feel that he’s Russian, but to Pogrom he isn’t. Are you sure you are Russian? I hear Mr Karlin is part Dagestani – will Pogrom allow him to be in the government, or run a business?
Anyhow, I don’t think it’s controversial that this sort of political ethnocentrism is dangerous, leads to violence, and tends to break countries. Just look at Yugoslavia.
There was no “Russian clandestine cyber meddling in U.S. elections”.
A plurality of voters in a sufficient number of states supported Trump’s platform – immigration restriction, balanced trade, and a non-interventionist foreign policy.
Ukraine’s gone ethnocentric and it broke up, and it’s likely to break up more. All because of its newfound political ethnonationalism. Just exactly what I’m saying. Where do you see hypocrisy?
Israel is not a country, it’s a settler-colonial entity
You mean like Tibet?
Again, Serbs were a minority within Yugoslavia, Russians are a great majority in this “multi-ethnic” country. The reality of Russia is one big, dominant Russian ethnos, and numerous small ethnic groups, the biggest of them – tatars – only numbers 5 million. In a country of 110+ million Russians, tatar separatism doesn’t stand a chance.
In short Russia is primed to become a nation state. Bureaucratic inertia is the only reason why various Soviet-era abominations such as Jewish Autonomous Oblast still exist.
So like Right Sector.
Off topic but out of curiosity, what does SiP propose to do about the North Caucasus problem? Do any of believe in expelling the district out of the federation?
Anything’s possible nowadays. It would, however, represent a dramatic break from the centuries-long tradition (or, let’s say – pattern) of accepting, integrating, and (to a degree) assimilating various peoples and elites (Gannibal, Catherine the Great, Bagration, Rokossovsky, etc. – the list goes on and on).
Russia is not Poland. Sure, it might eventually become an ethnic paradise, like Poland or Albania, who knows. Although with only 14% fully supporting “Russia for Russians” it doesn’t look like this transformations is just around the corner.
Tibet is not a colony or even a country. That meme only took hold because the Reds came late at consolidating power there relative to the rest of the country. Otherwise its no different from the countless other fiefdoms that existed in pre-1940s “China.”
Don’t worry, he doesn’t care about Tibet. He’s just hurt by what I said about Israel.
“Political authoritarianism and social conservatism”…Russia in no way has “political authoritarianism”…. that is a myth…but Ukraine certainly does
Didn’t Spuitnik-i-Pogrom also have some unpleasant things to say about Armenians,,Georgians,Azeri and so on?
errrm…….you retarded cretinous son a Nazi rapist shitbag…Right Sector are murderous terrorict scumbags who, among many atrocities ,use sniper fire to take out 60 year old women. They are in no way ” Yuppie” you dipshit and support many anti-jewish events in eastern European history but aren’t anti-zionist……exactly as Hitler you dumb prick,
If Ukraine needs to be broken up into smaller pieces, why not Russia? Why the the double standards and implied hypocrisy?
No double standards or hypocrisy you dumb shitbag….Ukraine is a failed state and artificial nation. Ukraine has revolutions every few years,Ukraine is losing millions in population (mostly to Russia),Kiev can barely sustain itself and support other regions whereas Moscow is relatively self-sufficient you idiot
Nobody likes any of those groups.
It is indeed surprising that Спутник и Погром has been blocked. While they certainly are in opposition to Putin and Co, nonetheless they are (a) a fully Russian phenomena unlike various flavors of opposition groups funded by outside sources, (b) far from being a group advocating the overthrow of Putin and Co by any means necessary.
The website of the Russian Imperial Movement has been blocked for many years. In a somewhat haphazard way though, for instance some providers block it, but others do not.
To be an overcrowded, multicultural, corrupt, dying state of rootless, faithless and cowardly apostates is apparently the end goal of many “nationalists” movements. Between this and transhumanism, the future for nationalism doesn’t look bright.
Nationalists should instead look to Japan and South Korea. Those are the societies I view as a model.
Tatars, be them muslim or orthodox, are heavily russified and some if not most of them have ethnic russian relatives that may not share the same tatar pride, but they are still linked together and has a long story as neighbors and even family. It impossible on all means for ethnic russians to get rid of tatars. The same for bashkirs and even yakuts.
Even if Russia is truly 80% ethnic russian and have pride on their culture and ethnic descendance, they also have historical, political, economical and blood ties with these neighboring minorities at some extent (even if that means as a former conquered masters to a conquered former masters).
And I doubt the minorities do not feel the same, their “rebellious” behaviour with their “ethnic republic pandering” wasn’t as considerable as it is now (although it existed). It’s only them taking advantage of “western freedom ideas and nationalism” as blackmail to receive more benefits from a “gentle” russian government servicing them to play some soviet-style patriotic paternalism and convince the West they aren’t bad. While ot is just a matter of the government to remind them they are, in the end, part of a federation with Russia in name, so they shouldn’t go pushing their preferences over ethnic russian ones, at the same time there must be a remind that they are common neighbors with a common cause to protect their common homeland.
At this point in specific, Putin trying to balance all sides without resorting to cheap miscigenation and PC-crap isn’t some unreasonable and traitorous to ethnic russians or the minorities. It’s a disservice when nationalists go on wanting to get rid of all minorities or even getting rid of all oblasts, okrugs and krais in Siberia and Far East where the population is greatly ethnic russian because it has former natives there that couldn’t and still can’t populate the region properly (even less than russians could populate themselves), let alone if russians leave the place.
This is all true. Very bizarre and disappointing.
I was able to access Russian Imperial Movement in both SPB and when I came back to Moscow, without using VPN or other workarounds. But when I checked it on the day S&P was blocked, I was unable to access it, hence my assumption they’d been caught up in the same sweep.
I still haven’t had any problems with accessing sputnikipogrom.com for what it’s worth.
Okay, S&P is pretty faithless and rootless, but’s its totally not multicultural, Russia in general will have to double its population several times over to become overcrowded so that’s not even an issue, and I don’t think anybody on the political spectrum (openly) supports corruption.
Japanese and Koreans can be as degenerate as they want because they aren’t in a breeding race with imported Third World underclasses.
There’s also something I need to stress. My interests/values intersect with both nationalism and transhumanism. That describes maybe 2% of all Russian nationalists (though more like 10%-20% of SiP readers specifically).
I question the premise of all these musings. “Pride on their culture and ethnic descendance” (as you put it) is typical for small maltreated ethnic groups, or bigger ones that recently experienced some sort of dramatic humiliation. Manifestation of the victim complex, really.
True, Russia did have a very difficult period in the 1990s, but I don’t think it was anywhere near post-WWI Germany (for example). There was no big war, no clear defeat in a war. And it’s recovered quite nicely in the last 15 years. Consequently, I don’t think most Russians are currently in this unfortunate state of mind (though clearly some are). And the elites are not actively encouraging it. And as long as they aren’t (en masse) in this state of mind, they can remain being Russians without bringing any pride and bitterness into it.
someone’s already whining over at Sailer’s about the “endemic lack of civility” here.
https://www.unz.com/isteve/slate-the-white-nationalist-roots-of-trumps-warsaw-speech/#comments
Looks very coordinated, but what do I know.
Sad.
[an overcrowded, multicultural, corrupt, dying state of rootless, faithless and cowardly apostates]
But enough about Israel.
That was my point, dumbass.
I have a slightly different and less positive understanding of SiP’s real goals and its ideology.
A short chronology.
1) By 2011 Prosvornin had been out of job for a couple of years. Before that his only working experience was writing for gaming journals. He hasn’t even got any education, for that matter. So largely because of nothing else to do he wrote in his blog in LifeJournal. Mostly it was stupid, worthless, and sometimes compromising stuff (this is why he later deleted his blog).
2) As a reminder: in 2011 there was an unrest in the country due to the elections and an increase in political activity. So out of that trend P. started to write about politics but using nationalist demagoguery and his famous farcical style. A few of his posts rose to the top of LJ. As a quite smart guy he understood that that writing about politics from a point of view of nationalism was quite popular.
3) Initially he invented such a scheme (I cite him nearly literally): “Dear readers! You readily buy printed newspapers and journals. But I must tell you, much of the cost of the journals is gone to the middlemen, the editors and the printing houses, not to the authors for which you actually buy those publications. I have no middlemen and do not want to work for a boss any more. Please, if you read me and you like my texts, pay me”. Seems he invented Patreon before it became popular. His scheme seemed not to work, and he got very little. Not a substitution for a real job and a real income.
4) In spite of publicity (he was even PR-ed by a CEO of LJ Nossik), several times his blog was blocked for various reasons. At this time he decided that he had to open his own web site, and with a couple of LJ friends he started SiP in Spring 2012.
5) Again a reminder: in Spring 2012 there was another unrest and a failed revolution in May. So he open his journal quite at the proper time, at a peak of political activity. Thus the journal started to gain popularity and to grow.
In short: SiP is but a personal business project of P., a way of making money. Or in other words the main driven force of it: “I do not want to work for a boss any more! I want my own journal with blackjack and hookers!” As he couldn’t write about anything properly he’s chosen to write about the simplest and most appealing thing: populist nationalism. Much of his success is due to a low competition. There was no authors and no journals which wrote in such a style of latte glamour nationalism; an effect of the pioneers. I bet if he lived in 1900 he would right about Communism, and in 1985 he would write about democracy and perestroika. It is just today nationalism is a main media trend in the WWW, so it is wise to exploit the possibility. I hope he earns a lot of money and has no need to work for a boss. But do not expect much out of it.
By the way, this may explain why he ultimately does not want to go to politics. What for? SiP is not about politics – it is about making money out of a popular trend.
P.S. Not that the guy does not sincerely believe in what he is writing. But that’s not the point. Everybody can write about nationalism, but how many are smart enough to make a living out of it?
I do actually agree with the money aspect. There is presumably a good reason he carefully guards his numbers of subscribers. That said, I don’t begrudge him taking a good cut of SiP’s revenue (if that is the case). He made the magazine into what it is, and nobody is forcing its authors to write for him.
He is obviously an extremely talented writer – even his critics, if they are honest, admit that. Personally I usually agree with Kholmogorov more, and consider him a better thinker, but Prosvirnin is the better writer. And he is also obviously highly industrious; in its early stages, many of SiP’s articles were unsigned, because it would look weird to have one guy (Prosvirnin) be behind 75% of them. I doubt his lack of academic credentials are due to any lack of drive or intelligence.
There’s probably a good reason for him not to go into politics. If a publication like SiP can be banned (their latest article pretty much confirms that there was an order to shut them down and keep them shut down), then outright politicking invites a jail sentence on dubious charges. (And he certainly won’t have Western HR people, journalists, politicians, etc. gunning for him like Navalny does).
I mean you/we shouldn’t exaggerate the importance of SiP. It’s another site/journal with the principal goal of making money. The nationalism is not the motive, it’s just a shell, a mere excuse. His main driving force is making money. Again, P. could only work as a journalist, but he did not want to work for a boss. So his only option was to create a journal himself just to make a living. Otherwise he would continue being a jobless hipster living in the parents’ basement. He could write about anything (as he did in his LJ blog), but he chose nationalism because it was a popular trend, he understood that he struck a gold mine there which nobody had exploited before (other nationalist sites which had existed before were indeed pitiful but for their excuse they did not pursue the goal of making money). It would have been utterly silly not to exploit such a one-time opportunity. Now he plays his role as the main nationalist journal (if you don’t praise yourself nobody will). When in fact it is like, eh, opening the first Japanese restaurant in your city. You could not have said you were saving and promoting Japanese culture by making a Japanese food, you just exploited a new fashionable trend.
To sum up: the fact that SiP is blocked is less of a problem for Russians or Russian nationalism as for P. himself as he is loosing his sole means of income. Even if I may agree with some of their points (and who wouldn’t, as they say extreme banalities – and they must say that just to appeal the public), I feel no empathy for him. He is another swindler of the time who exploits the feelings of Russians for his own means, such persons come and go, but duped Russians remain. Frankly, he reminds me somewhat Navalny, but on a different level.
Some more thoughts.
One must have a very low taste or low expectations to consider him a good writer. He has earned his attention and fame mainly by his well-known epatage and buffoonery. He may be a very good comic actor (after all, his parents have worked in theatre, and this must have affected him in one way or another), but in no way he is a good writer. Good businessman and manager, I agree, and I even appreciate this his talent. Just one fact that nobody wanted to hire him as a journalist or a writer says much about his writing skills.
I do not rate Kholmogorov’s analytical skills highly, but even he is a way much better at writing than Prosvirnin.
Yes, it looks like how many successful businessmen started from a one-man small enterprise and had to do all the work for themselves like working behind the counter.
I do not care about his credentials, really. For me it does not make any difference if he has got a degree in journalism, or he has dropped out after a couple of years – what in fact he’s done. It does not matter, especially considering that his employers thought the same and he worked as a journalist for some time. What is more important, and why I’ve brought this up, is the context of creating SiP. If in 2011 he got a good well-paid job and good perspectives for a career, by no way he would have created SiP. You simply did not see him in 2011, he seemed desperate and was looking for any slightest opportunity to improve his conditions.
Indeed, I do not remember many editors-in-chief or media businessmen who wanted to go to politics, especially to opposition politics. Why would they? They got everything they like and need. So the same with Prosvirnin. He’s got everything he could dream of as a young unemployed journalist: his own journal, a relative fame, very god income. Why must his ambitions be higher than that? He looks like a typical epicurean who does not need any more troubles.
In short: a good and shrewd media businessman and manager, but in no way he is a good writer, prophet, politician, ideologue, a saviour of the Russian people, or any of that sort.