Russia's War On Motherhood - OpEd | Albany Tribune News

Vladimir Putin

Written by James Kimer

January 29, 2013

January has been a particularly rough month for mothers in Russia.

With a disturbing pattern emerging of political decisions that separate families, insult grieving parents, and block orphans from finding new homes, President Vladimir Putin?s ambitious plans to rebuild a patriotic national character run against this seeming lack of empathy for the value of family as the core social unit in the lives of citizens.

Consider the recent events:

On the 28^th, right as the World Economic Forum was wrapping up in Davos, Russian prosecutors began the first ever show trial of a dead man, putting Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial three years after he died from mistreatment while unlawfully imprisoned.

The victim?s mother, Natalya Magnitskaya, was crestfallen by the decision.

?I think it is inhuman to try a dead man,? Magnitskaya told Reuters. ?This is not a court case but some kind of farce, and I will not take part in it.?

Earlier, on Jan. 17, a Russian oppositionist named Alexander Dolmatov died in an apparent suicide in a Rotterdam immigration detention center after his plea for political asylum was rejected. Dolmatov?s bereaved mother wrote a pleading letter to Dutch Queen Beatrix asking for an independent investigation to find out if indeed her son chose to give his life instead of facing prosecution for participation in May 6, 2012 anti-government rally.

?Mother, mommy! I?m leaving so as not to return a traitor, having shamed everyone. Our entire kin. It happens. Stay strong. I ask this of you. I?m with you, the same as I was before,? Dolmatov allegedly wrote in a heartbreaking suicide note, however some are not convinced that he authored the note.

Just one day earlier, during an emotional hearing in Berezniki, Perm, a judge decided to reject a plea for a deferred sentence by Maria Alyokhina, one of the jailed members of the punk rock group Pussy Riot whose cause has been so fiercely advocated by international human rights groups.

Alyokhina, who is the mother of a 5-year-old boy named Filipp, had requested the court to defer her 2-year jail sentence on charges of ?hooliganism? until her son reached his teen years.

?I?m in a situation where I have to prove here that my son needs me, which is obvious,? Alyokhina said in court. ?No one will force me to say I?m guilty?I have nothing to repent for.?

The fate of the jailed political prisoner may have already been sealed, judging by history. Back during the crackdown on Yukos executives following the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina was jailed in 2004 and was later sentenced in 2006. Like Alyokhina, Bakhmina also sought the court?s reprieve, requesting parole after four years imprisonment to go home to take care of her two young sons. Additionally, she was 8 months pregnant, and still was denied parole by the court. It wasn?t until a college friend raised 85,000 signatures in a petition that Bakhmina was released in 2009 after serving five years in prison for a crime she plainly did not commit.

And of course, the biggest (and saddest) event of 2013 was the decision to pass into law a ban on adoptions of Russian orphans by U.S. parents as a response to the passage of the Magnitsky Act. American families have adopted about 45,100 Russian orphans over the past decade, however they are the #1 provider of homes to children suffering from major physical disabilities who would not otherwise be likely to find a home. The unnecessary anguish experienced by many prospective mothers, as well as the children, has been the subject of numerous articles in the press.

All this is happening in the midst of an ongoing, if uneven, demographic crisis in Russia, whereby the government is attempting an ?anything-goes? approach to encouraging women to have more children. In 2007, the government gave everyone a day off work to get pregnant. In 2010, another mayor decided to give away prize cars to people who conceived by a certain date. Even the Nashi youth league camp at Seliger had creepy ?love oasis.? Last year, Putin offered cash to prospective mothers (1,500 rubles for the first child, 3,000 rubles for the second), and a few weeks ago, said that he would use sports programs to boost fertility among the shrinking population.

But can any of these efforts be successful in an environment of evident cruelty and dispassionate treatment of the mothers listed above?

As part of his third term, Putin has undertaken bigger national projects which are inconsistent with some of the more abrasive day-to-day decisions. If the first term was establishing authority and the second term consolidating power as the ultimate arbiter of inter-elite disputes, then the third term is maintenance. Despite the absence of any policy ideas of substance, Putin is striving to build something that looks like meaning, that feels like identity, and that at least provides the illusion of national coherence against the public discontent of December 2011.

?Ideology is very important. Patriotism is very important. Without dedication from people, without the trust of people, you cannot expect a positive impact of what you are doing, of your job,? said Putin?s spokesman Dmitri Peskov last fall.

Part of Putin?s project is an undoubtedly a return to the big state, as opposed to Dmitry Medvedev?s experiment with modernization and openness, where Rosneft absorbs TNK-BP to become one of the largest oil companies in the world, where Gazprom?s export monopoly remains unchallenged, and military spending unencumbered by people like Anatoly Serdyukov. The big state exudes confidence, exerts control, and makes decisions on behalf of the citizen as to what kind of country Russia will become ? not dissimilar than a strict parent.

But are these lofty ambitions possible in the face of Russia?s war on motherhood, or simply the consequence of an overbearing paternalism? Let us hope that solutions to both problems come sooner rather than later.

Source: http://www.albanytribune.com/29012013-russias-war-on-motherhood-oped/

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